Our history

Demographic, food security and climate change issues have been at the centre of attention since the end of the 2000s, making irrigation a focus of interest for the countries of the Global South. However, past failures and poor performance linked to a changing context (social, environmental, climatic and technical) have led to new ways of thinking about irrigation.

This is the context in which our project, COSTEA (Scientific and Technical Committee for Agricultural Water), was created in 2013 by AFD (Agence Française pour le Développement), the project funder, and AFEID (Association Française pour l'Eau, l'Irrigation et le Drainage), the project owner, to support the growing demand from States of the Global South in their reinvestment in irrigation.

  • Phase 1, from 2013 to 2017: budget €1.2 million
  • Phase 2, from 2017 to 2022: budget €5 million
  • The year 2023 is a key period, bridging the end of the 2nd phase and the beginning of the 3rd phase, which will start in January 2024.