Irrigated agriculture can no longer be conceived solely according to models inherited from the Green Revolution. Current challenges demand a systemic approach integrating environmental, social, economic, institutional, and territorial dimensions.
COSTEA explores how to reinvent hydraulic infrastructure, its management methods, and collective organizations to support the agroecological transition of irrigated systems.
New technologies open up unprecedented opportunities to better understand, manage, and optimize water use. Remote sensing, satellite data, digital tools, and decision support: COSTEA evaluates their potential and supports their operationalization to concretely meet the needs of managers, farmers, and decision-makers.
Collective hydro-agricultural developments in Africa and Asia are now entering a crucial phase of their evolution. Aging, these irrigated schemes must be rehabilitated and adapted to new challenges, particularly those related to climate change. However, this rehabilitation cannot be limited to a like-for-like restoration: it must integrate the principles and issues of the agroecological transition to build more sustainable, resilient, and efficient irrigated systems.
COSTEA’s work explores this agroecological re-engineering across two field sites: Senegal and Cambodia, focusing on old irrigated schemes currently undergoing rehabilitation as well as new development areas. The approach integrates hydraulic, energy, agro-economic, environmental, organizational, and territorial dimensions to identify scenarios adapted to local realities.
The results will contribute to producing operational references and tools to support project owners and inform discussions on the design of resilient, efficient, and climate-adapted collective hydro-agricultural developments.
Agroecological Re-engineering Training
COSTEA offers participatory workshops to thoroughly rethink collective irrigated schemes, going beyond simple renovation of structures. Through the serious game ARIHA, field analysis, and evaluation of the ‘cost of inaction,’ participants co-construct solutions adapted to their territory.
Project Owner Training
Facing the challenges of restructuring irrigation development and management companies, COSTEA offers practical training in managing hydro-agricultural projects. A first session brought together executives from several West African countries in Mauritania, with ongoing support for up to one year after the training.
Why Irrigation Development and Management Companies (SAGI) in West Africa?
Irrigation Development and Management Companies (SAGI) are major players in irrigation in West Africa. They serve as intermediaries between the sectoral ministries in charge of irrigation in these countries and irrigators in large ‘public’ schemes, which are generally co-managed by SAGI (irrigation administration) and users, often organized into associations and/or producer groups.
SAGI are the heirs of a long history that began during the colonial period or at the independence of African countries. Their missions have evolved significantly over time, particularly due to criticisms regarding their capacity to manage the schemes under their responsibility to support the development of productive irrigated agriculture while being efficient consumers of water resources. Today, collective discussions are needed on the future of these organizations and on reinventing their role in a rapidly changing sector.
What We Do
Since the beginning of COSTEA in 2013, we have participated in and facilitated the reflection work carried out among 11 SAGI in 6 countries of the Sahel Irrigation Initiative (BAGREPOLE and AMVS in Burkina Faso, Office du Niger, ODRS, OPIB and ORS in Mali, SONADER in Mauritania, ONAHA in Niger, SAED and SODAGRI in Senegal, and ANADER in Chad), irrigating farmers and their organizations, local authorities (municipalities), professional structures, and NGOs involved in irrigated agriculture, operating in the action zones of these 11 SAGI.
Public structures, project owners, and managers of large hydro-agricultural systems, along with their partners in these territories, can thus acquire the methods and tools that enable them to be major actors in the Sahel Irrigation Initiative, and thereby contribute significantly to achieving the objectives of the Dakar Declaration of October 2013.
We specifically study 4 themes:
Why services for irrigators?
The reflection on services for irrigators is part of the broader framework of services for farmers implemented to consolidate their productive capacity and promote the sustainability and development of their farms.
The range of services for irrigators includes a number of generic tools designed to address the challenge of securing the productive potential of irrigating farmers. These tools are technical, informational, organizational, institutional, and commercial in nature, integrated within agricultural policies. They can be operationally implemented through training, experiments, organizations, and rules that counterbalance the constraints inherent in the development of irrigated agriculture. Depending on geographical and historical contexts and the type of farm, the needs of producers are not always the same.
What We Do
We aim to propose a global framework for formulating and organizing support for farmers regarding irrigation policies, in order to maximize its impact. Our action is based on 4 successive steps:
Our study areas are the Maghreb (Tunisia) and Southeast Asia (Cambodia).
This action, launched in September 2020, was entrusted to the IRAM/Artefact/BICHE group and concluded in April 2022.
Why agricultural development and management of lowland areas and small floodplains in West Africa?
Tropical lowland areas constitute a unique environment with strong potential for agricultural development due to water availability, fertility, and numerous ecosystem functions. Beyond their agricultural potential, lowlands provide various economic, ecological, and social functions.
Rich in biodiversity, these areas play an important role for year-round grazing, providing wood and wild-harvested products, and supplying water for livestock, domestic, and artisanal uses. They contribute significantly to food security and household monetary stability. Yet, less than a third of these strategic areas, representing about ten million hectares in Africa, are currently cultivated. Lowlands indeed present specific constraints related to their small size, irregular water resources, and flood risks. These particularities have implications for development intervention methods and proposed development choices, advocating for a renewed engineering approach. These observations underpin our choice to focus on lowland areas in West Africa.
What We Do
Based on capitalizing on experiences, we aim to produce new knowledge to improve lowland development programs and projects. We particularly seek a better understanding of the diversity of lowland situations, such as the intrinsic characteristics of the lowland within its watershed, development models, or production systems and value chains.
We also focus on socio-organizational aspects such as the institutional setup of projects or the intertwining of social organizations, and the compromise between agricultural development and multi-use of lowland resources.
Our study areas are the lowland areas and small floodplains in West Africa. A CIRAD/INSUCO/IRD consortium was recruited as a service provider. This action was launched in September 2021, and these works are currently being finalized.
Why economic analyses of irrigation projects?
Our commitment to this theme stems from two main observations:
What We Do
One of our working groups has taken on economic questions related to irrigation and, more specifically, focuses its reflections on the roles and methods of conducting economic analyses of irrigation projects. Currently, a study is underway on capitalization and practical recommendations for conducting ex-ante economic analyses adapted to the typology of hydro-agricultural projects.
COSTEA Webinar presenting the economic guide – May 31, 2022
Why innovations in irrigated systems?
Innovation is one of the drivers of economic development in territories. It often results from a local initiative responding to a constraint (adaptation/resilience) or an economic opportunity, leading to improved performance or resilience of the irrigated production system.
It can thus take the form of a technical, economic, and/or social innovation endogenous to a territory, or a local appropriation/adaptation of exogenous technology or best practices. At another scale, institutional innovations that have had direct positive consequences (observable or measurable) on irrigated systems can also be considered.
What We Do
We launched a first call for contributions – an ‘innovation call’ – to gather an initial set of innovation proposals that will be analyzed by a review committee composed of COSTEA members. A grant of €500 was awarded to selected projects to finalize fact sheets published on our website.