Shifting or drifting? The crisis-driven advancement and failure of private smallholder irrigation from sand river aquifers in southern arid Zimbabwe

Duker, Annelieke; Mawoyo, T.A.; Bolding, Alex; Fraiture, Charlotte de; Zaag, Pieter van der

doi:10.1016/j.agwat.2020.106342

Cited by 15 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…However, the water challenges in Insukamini influence the scheme's overall sensitivity, given that Ruchanyu, with significantly high vulnerability, has a lower sensitivity index than Insukamini. Water is an essential source of livelihood in SISs in Zimbabwe; nevertheless, water conflicts are prevalent in smallholder irrigation farming across the country due to the systems' common pool resource nature and imbalance of demand and supply of freshwater [66]. A moderate vulnerability score of water conflicts resolution in the three schemes reflects limited water access.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing Vulnerability to Climate Change in Smallholder Irrigation Schemes of Zimbabwe

2021

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Globally, climate change poses enormous threats to the livelihoods of rural communities in arid and semi-arid regions. Assessing the extent of vulnerability is critical to identify climate hot spots and develop appropriate adaptation policies and strategies. This paper uses the Livelihood Vulnerability Index (LVI) and the Livelihood Vulnerability Index—Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (LVI-IPCC) to compare vulnerability to climate change in the Exchange, Insukamini, and Ruchanyu smallholder irrigation schemes (SISs) in the Midlands Province of Zimbabwe. A questionnaire was used to collect data from a sample of 317 randomly selected households. Results show higher exposure and sensitivity to climate change in the Insukamini irrigation scheme despite the higher adaptive capacity. Both LVI and LVI-IPCC show that households in Insukamini irrigation scheme are more vulnerable to climate change than in Exchange and Ruchanyu irrigation schemes, attributed to water insecurity, poor social networks, and natural disasters and climate variability. The study recommends that development and investment in Insukamini and Ruchanyu should prioritize improving social networks while Exchange should primarily focus on improving livelihood strategies. Using the LVI-IPCC framework is a key methodology for understanding the vulnerability of communities in SISs and identifying areas that need prime development and investment. These results have implications on implementing investments and livelihood policies in SISs of Zimbabwe.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing Vulnerability to Climate Change in Smallholder Irrigation Schemes of Zimbabwe

2021

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“…Rather, smallholder farmers lost incentives to participate in schemes, irrigation infrastructure fell into disrepair and returns on infrastructure investments declined (Aarnadouse et al, 2018). Instead, farmers began to acquire land and water resources through customary land markets and customary land and water rules (Duker et al, 2020; Nkoka et al, 2014; Scoones & Murimbarimba, 2019). Farmer investments in irrigated production initially went relatively unnoticed by official institutions.…”

Section: Irrigation and Development In Sub‐saharan Africamentioning

confidence: 99%

Farmer‐led irrigation development in sub‐Saharan Africa

Harmon

Jepson

Lefore³

2023

WIREs Water

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Farmer‐led irrigation development (FLID) is a process where individual farmers play a driving role in configuring agricultural technology practices, crop‐specific market linkages, land and water governance arrangements, and informal and formal value chain actor networks. Multilateral donors are increasingly funding FLID as a development strategy in sub‐Saharan Africa to expand irrigation coverage, recognizing co‐benefits such as enhanced climate resilience, improved household food insecurity, and alleviated rural poverty. This review suggests that FLID can be understood as a farmer response to the shortcomings of neoliberal structural adjustment and cost recovery policies. Simultaneously, multilateral donor‐funded FLID projects advance Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) policy tools, exposing a policy paradox. Following multilateral and bilateral donor investments in FLID over 30 years, the review establishes how farmers initiated their own irrigation investments and the subsequent “scale‐up” of FLID by multilateral finance institutions. The stances of multilateral donors (e.g., World Bank) and multilateral entities (e.g., FAO) toward water governance for FLID present a contradictory picture. The review demonstrates how multilateral donors have transformed FLID into distinct agribusiness project models through Water‐Energy‐Food nexus and climate frameworks, with attention to farmers' collective action strategies. However, collective action as an avenue for the expansion of FLID does not automatically guarantee a socially inclusive and environmentally sustainable process across project models. Future research should focus on examining socioeconomic impacts on farmers participating in a project intervention, as well as farmers and irrigated value chain actors in proximal areas, to work toward effective and equitable water governance for FLID. This article is categorized under: Human Water > Water Governance Human Water > Rights to Water

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“…Some possible risks that may be identified by stakeholders are not only climate related, in the form of severe drought and occasional floods, but also others such as market uncertainties, pest and wild animal attacks, failure of informal contracts, changing policies, remoteness to and access to resources etc. A combination of these risks often results in a startstop dynamic that characterizes small-scale irrigation (Duker et al, 2020b;Karimba et al, 2022).…”

Section: Example: the Case Of Sand River Based Irrigationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Irrigation development under uncertainty: A call for adaptive investment pathways

Prasad

Duker

Fraiture

et al. 2023

Environmental Science & Policy

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Shifting or drifting? The crisis-driven advancement and failure of private smallholder irrigation from sand river aquifers in southern arid Zimbabwe

Cited by 15 publications

References 19 publications

Assessing Vulnerability to Climate Change in Smallholder Irrigation Schemes of Zimbabwe

Assessing Vulnerability to Climate Change in Smallholder Irrigation Schemes of Zimbabwe

Farmer‐led irrigation development in sub‐Saharan Africa

Irrigation development under uncertainty: A call for adaptive investment pathways

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