Investing in water for agriculture in the drylands of Sub-Saharan Africa: considerations for a conducive policy environment

Abstract

Both public and private investment in water for agriculture as a means of poverty reduction require an enabling policy environment with supporting, socially embedded water institutions, particularly where it concerns smallholder farmers in the drylands of Sub-Saharan Africa. Longer-term policies with integrated management perspectives will facilitate technology uptake particularly where combined with multiple-use systems. The same is true of the need for policies conducive to the private sector for investing in innovative water technologies in a cost-effective way (Molden, 2007 ). Whereas fear of famine among the rural poor was the major driving force behind water-related agricultural investments in developing countries in the past (de Fraiture et al., 2010 ), current investments are increasingly driven by the need to respond to changes in diet and energy sources creating associated demands for meat, high-value food and biofuel crops by a rapidly increasing world population (de Fraiture and Wichelns, 2010 ). Although smallholder agriculture remains a key option in reducing poverty and hunger (Hazell et al., 2010 ), the future of small farms in Africa largely depends on government policy and investment deci- sions (Jayne et al., 2010 ) and the much needed institutional innovations to over- come market failures (Birner and Resnick, 2010 ; Hazell et al., 2010 ). Government policies have often been unfavourable or contradictory with regard to investment in smaller scale water technologies for agricultural production purposes. When (donor) funds become available, governments tend to favour highly-visible large- scale infrastructure investments for water management despite the fact that small- scale technologies, like water harvesting, offer a faster and more cost-effective way to economically empower rural farming communities thereby contributing to achieving the Millennium Development Goals. Water management institutions may further need more fl exibility to change policies as the understanding of driv- ers and associated effects improves. On the other hand, multi-stakeholder coordi- nation and negotiation mechanisms are required to deal with tradeoffs and innovative ways of implementing decisions (Inocencio et al., 2007 ). The poores stakeholder groups generally have little voice and political power to realize access to water and capital and negotiate allocations for water (WRI, 2005 ), suggesting a need for integrating capacity building into local policies. The objective of this chapter is to address the question whether Sub-Saharan Africa has the appropriate policy environment to stimulate and facilitate increased investments in water for agriculture. After an introduction to the trends and chal- lenges in food demand and consumption, poverty and water use in agriculture in the following section, the chapter will discuss different aspects related to the question above. It will highlight policy issues and policy design considerations related to water resource management and investment with the ultimate goal of rising agriculture productivity and improving cropping stability in Sub-Saharan Africa. Special attention will be paid to water harvesting systems in the rainfed drylands; that is, the focus of this book