Improving Land and Water Management

1. Improving Land and Water Management David Bahk TSM 352

2. Challenges • Food insecurity prevalent around the world • Small famers deal with low and unpredictable crop yields and incomes • Millions of farmers in the world are struggling to feed their families • Land degradation • Land use pressures • Climate change

3. Requirements • Increase soil organic matter • Improve soil structure • Reduce soil erosion • Increase water filtration • Increase efficiency of water use • Replenish soil nutrients • Increase the efficiency of nutrient uptake

4. Results • Improved land and water management practices to farmers and rural economies • Higher crop yield • Increased supplies of valuable goods • Increased income and employment opportunities • Increased resilience to climate change

5. Promising Land and Water Management Practices • Agroforestry • Conservation agriculture • Rainwater harvesting • Integrated soil fertility management

6. Agroforestry • Integration of woody perennial plants (trees and shrubs) with crops or livestock on the same land • In Malawi, maize yields increased by 50% when nitrogen-fixing trees were planted in farms • In Senegal, presence of certain shrubs in fields increased nutrient-use efficiency and helped create a soil high in organic matter, nitrogen, and phosphorus • Practiced in Africa, Latin America, Asia, and parts of Europe and North America

7. Conservation Agriculture • Combination of reduced tillage, retention of crop residues or maintenance of cover crops and crop rotation or diversification • In Zambia, maize yields in conservation system with crop rotation can increase yield by 50% than conventional tillage • Most practiced in North and South America, Canada, and Australia, but not in Africa

8. Main Constraints to Smallholders in Africa • Competition for the use of crop residues • Short-term risks of lower yields during the transition period from conventional plowing to no-till • High costs and limited access to specialized equipment • Weed control and access to herbicides, particularly during early transition • Free-ranging livestock and customary grazing on crop residues

9. Rainwater Harvesting • Planting pits, stone bunds, and trenches along slopes that capture and collect rainfall before it runs off farm fields • Low-cost practices • In Burkina Faso, grain yield doubled by using multiple water harvesting techniques such as stone bunds and planting pits

10. Integrated Soil Fertility Management • Combined use of mineral fertilizers and soil amendments such as manure, crop residues, compost, leaf litter, lime, or phosphate rock • In West Africa, integrated soil fertility management across 200,000 hectares resulted in yield increase of 33-58% over a 4 year period and revenue increase of 179%

11. Integrated Landscape Approaches • Provisioning • Crops and livestock • Biomass fuel • Wild foods and freshwater • Regulating • Erosion control and climate regulation • Water flows and quality • Supporting • Soil formation • Nutrient and water cycling • Habitat for biodiversity • Cultural • Local land races of agricultural crops • Cultural landscapes

12. Seven Ways to Accelerate the Use of These Practices • Strengthen knowledge management systems and access to information • Increase communication and outreach in ways that amplify voices of champions and leverage direct engagement with farmers • Support institutional and policy reforms, particularly for strengthening property rights • Support capacity building, especially in community-based management of natural resources • Increase support for integrated landscape management • Reinforce economic incentives and private sector engagement • Mainstream Investments in improved land and water management to accelerate adoption of these practices as a strategic component of food security and climate change

13. How Improvement in Management Practices Perform for Sustainable Future • Poverty Alleviation: Reducing poverty while being cost effective • Land and water management improvements increase soil quality (Organic matter, moisture content, fertilizer efficiency, etc…) • Improved practices can diversify and increase farmer income • Gender: Generates benefits for women • Land and water management improvements diversify and increase women’s income

14. Continued… • Ecosystems: Avoids agricultural expansion into remaining ecosystems and relieves pressure on overstrained fisheries • Improving land and water management practices restores and boosts productivity of existing agricultural land, thereby reducing the need to expand cropland area • Climate: Helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture to levels consistent with stabilizing the climate • Improving land and water management practices sequester carbon on cropland by increasing organic matter in soil • Reduce farmer vulnerability to increased climate variability by increasing soil moisture retention • Water: Does not deplete or pollute aquifers or surface waters • Rainwater harvesting reduce rainfall runoff, increase infiltration of water into soils, recharge aquifers, and contribute to local water supplies

15. References • Winterbottom, Robert, Chris Reij, Dennis Garrity, Jerry Glover, Debbie Hellums, Mike Mcgahuey, and Sara Scherr. “Improving Land and Water Management.” World Resource Institute. World Resource Institute, 1 Oct. 2013. Web. 17 Apr. 2014. http://www.wri.org/sites/default/files/improving_land_and_water_management_0.pdf.