Base documentaire eau et agriculture

Groundwater is essential for early-season agriculture in many arid regions. In such regions, however,
groundwater recharge is generally low, leading to groundwater degradation. State responses are seldom effective in addressing this issue, which leads to fatalist narratives of the unsustainability of profitable agricultural growth and the collapse of aquifers. We argue that such narratives make it difficult to recognise more promising instances in which communities find solutions to groundwater degradation. We call for a fine-grained analysis of the social practices around the use of groundwater, which, we argue, represent a process of commoning. We do so while recognising that the collective action of communities is embedded in an intricate set of relations with other stakeholders including the state, and that the positive environmental and transformative social change that is often associated with commoning cannot be taken for granted at the outset. Building on the case of the arid Drâa Valley in Morocco where watermelon production has expanded rapidly, we illustrate how the process of commoning evolves through different social practices, including: 1) the use of new farming practices that reveal the potential of the aquifer; 2) the representation of the aquifer as severely degraded and the development of a narrative around
it being a collective good to be protected against outsiders; 3) the defining and negotiating of rules to control groundwater access and use; and 4) the engagement in negotiations and the resolving of conflicts. Our analysis shows that commoning, as performed by young local farmers, is about extending the lifespan of the aquifer for agricultural production rather than preserving it indefinitely; however, an examination of commoning practices also reveals the capacity of the community to change the course of the future.

Immergés en hiver, les marais saisonniers (merjas) de la plaine du Gharb au Maroc étaient traditionnellement exploités pour le pâturage en été, à côté d’autres usages productifs. Pourtant, ils étaient considérés par l’administration coloniale comme des milieux insalubres et peu valorisés, malgré leur abondance en ressources naturelles. Au cours du XXe siècle, la plaine a fait l’objet d’un aménagement hydro-agricole, incorporant les merjas, pour contribuer aux objectifs nationaux de sécurité alimentaire et d’exportation de produits agricoles. Cet article interroge le regard porté par les acteurs locaux et institutionnels sur les merjas et les bénéfices qu’elles procurent, à travers une analyse des services écosystémiques. Si les institutions les considèrent comme des terres vierges à aménager et des zones tampon
de régulation des crues pour protéger les secteurs aménagés et les villes, les collectivités riveraines les considèrent comme des espaces productifs, défavorisés par les crues. L’étude montre des visions contrastées des services écosystémiques, où chaque acteur a une vision utilitariste des merjas. Malgré le débat international sur la biodiversité et le stockage de carbone dans les zones humides, les dimensions
écologiques sont peu citées. L’approche par les services écosystémiques dévoile les antagonismes entre acteurs, mais peut être un moyen de négociation sur le devenir des merjas dans une vision territoriale

El cambio de uso de suelo en las cuencas tiene implicaciones en la pérdida de suelo y en el incremento de la escorrentía superficial. El objetivo del presente estudio fue evaluar los efectos en la erosión hídrica y el hidrograma de crecidas por del cambio del uso del suelo en la microcuenca del río Puca. Se aplico el modelo RUSLE con el uso de SIG para la estimación de la erosión hídrica y el modelo hidrológico HEC-HMS para la generación de hidrogramas de crecida para periodos de retorno de 25, 50 y 100 años. Para conocer el comportamiento de la escorrentía por el cambio del uso del suelo se establecieron tres escenarios con diferentes periodos de retorno (TR). De acuerdo con el uso de suelo del año 2016, el 17, 33, 34 y 16% de la superficie total (224.06 km2) de la microcuenca, presenta un nivel de erosión normal, ligero, moderado y severo, respectivamente. La pérdida promedio de suelo es de 7.4 t ha-1año-1 y la cantidad de sedimentos que llega al cauce del río Puca es de 0.8 t ha-1año-1. Los hidrogramas de crecida para periodos de retorno de 25, 50 y 100 años genera caudales máximos de 364.9, 422.2, y 531.5 m3/s, respectivamente. Los tres escenarios para TR de 25, 50 y 100 años generaron nueve hidrogramas de crecida, los máximos caudales fueron incrementándose según el progresivo cambio de uso del suelo. En el escenario 2 para un TR de 50 años se genera el desbordamiento del río Puca en el punto de salida de la microcuenca. El cambio de uso de suelo genera la pérdida del suelo (erosión hídrica), sedimentación del río Puca y cambios en la respuesta hidrológica (hidrogramas de crecida) de la microcuenca.

The development of intensive irrigated agriculture in arid California has inspired many governments and people around the world. In the paper, we show how 'California' as a social imaginary influenced North Africa’s irrigation policies. We trace the influence of this imaginary at two very different and critical junctures: in Morocco under the French Protectorate from the 1930s to the 1950s and in the contemporary Algerian Sahara. We argue that the influence of the 'California' imaginary persisted because of how it appeared to be the perfect embodiment of capitalist modernity while at the same time exhibiting two crucial sociopolitical ambiguities; the first ambiguity concerned the proper role of the state and the second had to do with the California imaginary’s overall implications in terms of social equity. These ambiguities enabled governing actors to naturalise and routinise this imported imaginary even as they used it to forge distinct types of political settlements that were in line with local historical circumstances. We thus argue that the notion of imaginary, inherently visual and polysemic, is usefully distinguished from alternative notions such as paradigms, narratives and frames. We also contend that imaginaries do not function independently from other social forces, but rather that they are embedded in the wider political economy. This leads us to conclude that any transformation of agricultural policies in North Africa will require the diffusion of an alternative imaginary that is as effective in forging powerful social coalitions as the Californian dream proved to be.

This paper uses a series of serious games – a form of participatory modelling designed and played in Kandal, Cambodia - as an entry point for reexamining relations between development projects, participatory formats, landscape transformations, and sustainable futures. Critics of development and participation have shown that participatory formats simplify real-world complexities by rendering them technical. This is also the case for serious games. But contrary to what is often assumed, ‘depoliticization’ is not the unavoidable outcome. Instead, participatory outcomes depend on specific sociotechnical patterns of more or less generous constraints. To support collective exploration requires tinkering with these patterns of constraints to keep the boundaries between virtual and real worlds, insiders and outsiders, and the present and future relatively permeable. Generous constraints and permeable boundaries do not keep power out of participation but facilitate glimpses of different possibilities. In Kandal, they made it possible to shift from narrow technical discussions on the rehabilitation of specific preks (water channels) towards a collective exploration of sustainable futures for the full mosaic landscape. In general, we argue, serious games hold potentials as experimental systems, which are serious to the extent that they work like technologies of humility. In this capacity, they can support efforts to do difference together, and explore more-than-human worlds and divergent practical ontologies.
Learning from this multiplicity matters for moving towards sustainable forms of living in Kandal and elsewhere.