Your search found 5 records
1 Sarpong, D. B.; Mabhaudhi, Tafadzwanashe; Minh, Thai; Cofie, Olufunke. 2022. Sustainable financing ecosystem for cocoa irrigation in Ghana: a literature review. Colombo, Sri Lanka: International Water Management Institute (IWMI). CGIAR Initiative on West and Central African Food Systems Transformation. 64p.
Cocoa industry ; Irrigated farming ; Sustainability ; Financing ; Agricultural sector ; Forest ecosystems ; Ecosystem conservation ; Stakeholders ; Farmer-led irrigation ; Smallholders / Ghana
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H051654)
(1.25 MB)
Based on a systematic literature review using scientific database search engines and an opportunistic review of published and unpublished government, international and nongovernmental organization reports on cocoa from the internet, the paper explores sustainable irrigation financing feasibility and the potential for different cocoa systems. We design a conceptual framework and propose a sustainable financing ecosystem for supplemental irrigated cocoa farming in Ghana and a qualitative data collection tool based on the conceptual framework and insights from the literature review.
2 Birhanu, B. Z.; Sanogo, K.; Traore, S. S.; Minh, Thai; Kizito, F. 2023. Solar-based irrigation systems as a game changer to improve agricultural practices in Sub-Sahara Africa: a case study from Mali. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, 7:1085335. [doi: https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2023.1085335]
Solar powered irrigation systems ; Agricultural practices ; Climate-smart agriculture ; Technology ; Smallholders ; Farmers ; Land suitability ; Land use ; Land cover ; Slope ; Soil types ; Sustainable intensification ; Water management ; Water use ; Groundwater ; Solar energy ; Rainfall ; Rural areas ; Households ; Socioeconomic aspects ; Case studies / Africa South of Sahara / Mali / Sikasso / Bougouni / Koutiala
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H051767)
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fsufs.2023.1085335/pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H051767.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H051767.pdf
(6.20 MB) (6.20 MB)
Introduction: In rainfed agricultural systems, sustainable and efficient water management practices are key to improved agricultural productivity and natural resource management. The agricultural system in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) relies heavily on the availability of rainfall. With the erratic and unreliable rainfall pattern associated with poor and fragile soils, agricultural productivity has remained very low over the years. Much of the SSA agricultural land has been degraded with low fertility as a result of ongoing cultivation and wind and water erosion. This has resulted in an increased food shortage due to the ever-increasing population and land degradation. Better agricultural and nutritional security are further hampered by the lack of reliable access to the available water resources in the subsurface hydrological system.
Methods: This study used socio-economic data from 112 farm households and Boolean and Fuzzy methods to understand farmers' perceptions and identify suitable areas to implement Solar Based Irrigation Systems (SBISs) in the agro-ecologies of Bougouni and Koutiala districts of southern Mali.
Results and discussion: Results revealed that the usage of SBISs has been recent (4.5 years), majorly (77%) constructed by donor-funded projects mainly for domestic water use and livestock (88%). With regards to irrigation, vegetable production was the dominant water use (60%) enabling rural farm households to gain over 40% of extra household income during the dry season. Results further showed that 4,274 km2 (22%) of the total land area for the Bougouni district, and 1,722 km2 (18%) of the Koutiala district are suitable for solar-based irrigation. The affordability of solar panels in many places makes SBISs to be an emerging climate-smart technology for most rural Malian populations.
Methods: This study used socio-economic data from 112 farm households and Boolean and Fuzzy methods to understand farmers' perceptions and identify suitable areas to implement Solar Based Irrigation Systems (SBISs) in the agro-ecologies of Bougouni and Koutiala districts of southern Mali.
Results and discussion: Results revealed that the usage of SBISs has been recent (4.5 years), majorly (77%) constructed by donor-funded projects mainly for domestic water use and livestock (88%). With regards to irrigation, vegetable production was the dominant water use (60%) enabling rural farm households to gain over 40% of extra household income during the dry season. Results further showed that 4,274 km2 (22%) of the total land area for the Bougouni district, and 1,722 km2 (18%) of the Koutiala district are suitable for solar-based irrigation. The affordability of solar panels in many places makes SBISs to be an emerging climate-smart technology for most rural Malian populations.
3 Cummings, S.; Koerner, J.; Schut, M.; Lubberink, R.; Minh, Thai; Spielman, D.; Vos, J.; Kropff, M. (Ed.); Leeuwis, C. (Ed.). 2022. Open for business: pathways to strengthen CGIAR's responsible engagement with the private sector. Montpellier, France: CGIAR System Organization; Utrecht, Netherlands: NL-CGIAR Strategic Partnership. 43p.
Private sector ; CGIAR ; Public-private partnerships ; Governance ; Risk management ; Multi-stakeholder processes ; Research programmes ; Innovation scaling ; Investment ; Institutions ; Policies ; Funding ; Climate services ; Sustainable Development Goals ; Farmers
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H052091)
https://www.nlfoodpartnership.com/documents/316/20220330_-_NL_CGIAR_Special_Report.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H052091.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H052091.pdf
(8.15 MB) (8.15 MB)
4 Durga, Neha; Schmitter, Petra; Ringler, C.; Mishra, Shrishti; Magombeyi, Manuel S.; Ofosu, Abena; Pavelic, Paul; Hagos, Fitsum; Melaku, Dagmawi; Verma, Shilp; Minh, Thai; Matambo, Chamunorwa. 2024. Barriers to the uptake of solar-powered irrigation by smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa: a review. Energy Strategy Reviews, 51:101294. [doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esr.2024.101294]
Solar powered irrigation systems ; Irrigation development ; Energy security ; Poverty alleviation ; Barriers ; Smallholders ; Farmer-led irrigation ; Groundwater ; Pumps / Africa South of Sahara / Ethiopia / Kenya / Ghana / South Africa / Zimbabwe
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H052554)
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211467X24000014/pdfft?md5=96090509a659ba087e284cb4b29f18e7&pid=1-s2.0-S2211467X24000014-main.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H052554.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H052554.pdf
(0.86 MB) (884 KB)
Irrigation expansion is critical for agricultural and rural development, food and nutrition security, and climate change adaptation in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Lack of accessible energy for irrigation development due to limited off- and on-grid infrastructure and the resulting dependence on costly fuel-based irrigation have been key inhibiting factors for irrigation expansion in the region. Off-grid solar-powered irrigation pumps (SIPs) can overcome many of the energy access and other challenges in the region, but their uptake has been slow. Given the nascent development of the solar irrigation sector in SSA, this paper combines a review of the peer-reviewed and grey literature with key informant interviews to identify systemic barriers to the adoption and growth of solar-powered irrigation. We identify uncovered risks, lack of incentives, and lack of capacity as the key factors limiting the adoption of solar-powered irrigation. Moreover, despite significant global cost reductions, solar-powered irrigation systems remain costly in SSA due to limited market development and geographical constraints. Lack of regulation and low investment in building local institutions and value chains further affect uptake and inhibit leveraging the energy transition for ensuring food security and agriculture-led poverty alleviation in SSA. We propose a move away from thinking of SIPs as “silver bullets” and towards a systems approach and the design of context-specific solutions to address risks, incentives and capacity challenges.
5 Jones, S. K.; Sanchez, A.; Wickramaratne, Chaturangi; Wakaabu, D.; Ivanova, Y.; Minh, Thai; Mockshell, J.; Sanchez-Choy, J.; Steinke, J. 2024. Are the metrics that companies use effective for monitoring supply chain sustainability? A closer look at cocoa and rice. [Policy Brief of the Agroecological Transitions for Building Resilient and Inclusive Agricultural and Food Systems (TRANSITIONS): Private Sector Incentives and Investments (PSii) for Climate Change, Resilience and Environmental Sustainability project]. Montpellier, France: Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT). 8p.
Rice ; Agroecology ; Food systems ; Investment ; Private sector ; Incentives ; Supply chains ; Cocoa industry ; Sustainability assessment ; Sustainable production ; Monitoring systems ; Farmers ; Indicators ; Governance
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H052917)
(3.15 MB)
In a globalized world, consumers need to rely on information provided by agri-food companies to assess the impacts of the food they eat. And consumer interest in eating responsibly is growing, as stories of agriculture-driven deforestation, pollinator declines, and inhumane worker conditions hit the headlines. Major markets are responding too, by starting to require that agribusinesses demonstrate their products meet environmental and social standards (Kinderman, 2020), with the EU law banning products linked to deforestation as a recent example (http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2023/1115/oj). Companies know they need to meet these market requirements and consumer demands, to stay competitive. Indeed, despite an initial cost spike to set up effective monitoring systems, firms benefit financially in the long term from sustainability reporting (Friske et al., 2023), as this helps expand their consumer base.
Companies have responded by seeking sustainability certification (e.g. Organic, Fairtrade, Rainforest Alliance) or setting themselves sustainability targets and reporting against these. Certification remains a market niche in part due to the high costs, and has its limitations since no single certification scheme addresses social, environmental and economic sustainability dimensions. For this reason, companies seek to demonstrate their sustainability commitments using company-determined targets and monitoring systems. Yet within this space, there is no clear guidance or consensus across agrifood businesses on which targets to set, which indicators to use to measure progress towards them, and how to collect reliable data on these indicators cost-effectively. This makes it difficult to compare companies and products. It increases the likelihood that some companies are using outdated, unreliable or costly methods to collect data because of a lack of tools and knowledge transfer across regions and commodities. It also creates a risk that certain locally important negative impacts (e.g. water depletion, soil degradation, forced labour, and farmer debt-levels) are under-reported, and that the indicators in use are poorly suited to the agroecological, multifunctional farms of the future (e.g. yield measured in tons/ha is a metric well-suited to monocultures and not to agroforestry systems, where whole system yields should be captured). Companies along cocoa and rice supply chains are no exception and the way they choose to monitor sustainability impacts has worldwide importance. An estimated 5.9 million tons of cocoa is produced each year (FAOSTAT, 2022) and used in a range of products, with chocolate the best known and loved by the consumer, while 776 million tons of rice is produced and is a major staple providing approximately 20% of the world’s calories (FAOSTAT, 2022).
Companies have responded by seeking sustainability certification (e.g. Organic, Fairtrade, Rainforest Alliance) or setting themselves sustainability targets and reporting against these. Certification remains a market niche in part due to the high costs, and has its limitations since no single certification scheme addresses social, environmental and economic sustainability dimensions. For this reason, companies seek to demonstrate their sustainability commitments using company-determined targets and monitoring systems. Yet within this space, there is no clear guidance or consensus across agrifood businesses on which targets to set, which indicators to use to measure progress towards them, and how to collect reliable data on these indicators cost-effectively. This makes it difficult to compare companies and products. It increases the likelihood that some companies are using outdated, unreliable or costly methods to collect data because of a lack of tools and knowledge transfer across regions and commodities. It also creates a risk that certain locally important negative impacts (e.g. water depletion, soil degradation, forced labour, and farmer debt-levels) are under-reported, and that the indicators in use are poorly suited to the agroecological, multifunctional farms of the future (e.g. yield measured in tons/ha is a metric well-suited to monocultures and not to agroforestry systems, where whole system yields should be captured). Companies along cocoa and rice supply chains are no exception and the way they choose to monitor sustainability impacts has worldwide importance. An estimated 5.9 million tons of cocoa is produced each year (FAOSTAT, 2022) and used in a range of products, with chocolate the best known and loved by the consumer, while 776 million tons of rice is produced and is a major staple providing approximately 20% of the world’s calories (FAOSTAT, 2022).
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