Fair Access to Agricultural Water for Small-Scale Farming Systems in the South

1. Page 1 Briefing in Brussels on development No 22 - 13/04/2011The water we eat: issues for ACP countries in a period of agricultural downturn Agriculture & Food Commission – Water Group – Jean-Philippe Fontenelle For social water justice: guaranteeing access to agricultural water for the small-scale farming systems of the South

2. Why are we calling for fair access to agricultural water for the small-scale farming systems of the South? • The small farmers of the South are suffering social injustice on two counts: • increasingly limited access to water and land; • frequent denialof their historical water-access rights. • They are often politically weaker than other users in obtaining or retaining rights to fair access to water. • This aggravates their weakness at economic and climatic level.

3. Why are we calling for fair access to agricultural water for the small-scale farming systems of the South? • The small-scale agriculture of the South is one of the solutions to the problem of food security: high productivity potential for a modest financial outlay. • Water is acommon resource which must remain accessible to all, and which is crucial tosafeguard the right to eat. • Denying these farmers access to water also contributes to the social and economic destabilisation of the region.

4. Point 1: not all the small farmers in the world waste water… • … Which agricultural systems are we talking about? • The small farmers of the south possess traditional knowledge about the sustainable management of water and other resources, which should be recognised and promoted as an alternative to the dominant, capital-intensive, production-focused, high water consumption agricultural model. …. What are the losses concerned? Water is drawn off, distributed, drained and then returned in the water cycle. It is not lost…

5. Point 1: not all the small farmers in the world waste water… • … What is the scale we are concerned with? • It is incorrect to talk about water at the level of the land plot or catchment area: this takes no account of the size of the water management territories. • Small farmers collect, share and jointly manage the resource, often for the benefit of the community (drainage). • … Who benefits from this debate? • The expanding cities? Tourism development? “Capitalist” agriculture, the industrial and mineral sector where their “mining” practices are unsustainable? The water “dealers” (irrigation and re-use technologies, etc.)?

6. Point 2: small farmers have a high potential for increased productivity • An immense potential for agricultural productivity, and a fundamental role for land management and the retention of employment in rural areas. • This potential could be realised in the states of the North and of the South, and: • would provide them with an institutional framework removing major restrictions (land tenure, prices, access to markets, credit, investment, etc.); • would guarantee their historical rights and fair access to water; • would redirect investment towards projects on a human scale; • and would promote more suitable, low-intensity technologies.

7. Point 3: water is essential for the adaptation of small-scale farming systems vulnerable to climate change • The small-scale farming systems of the South have a historical record of adaptation to the vagaries of the climate by using simple water storage and collection techniques, improved drainage and retention of water in the soil, and by redefining the rules governing sharing and access to the resource, in irrigated or pastoral zones, for example. • A powerful political statement of climate COPs: supporting the adaptation of the at-risk populations means supporting and consolidating these small-farm strategies of access to, and management of, water.

8. Point 4: small farmers are adapting and modernising their water management procedures • Many small-farm methods for the sustainable management of water resources, both collective and individual, have survived the test of time.They are striving to adapt and modernise in a difficult context: population growth, markets, competition from new users. • Innovative models of well-thought-out and sustainable management have been developed by processes of negotiation and discussion between the users, at low cost and for the collective benefit. • This “modernisation” of small-scale farming can be achieved if…

9. Point 4: small farmers are adapting and modernising their water management procedures • governments and economic players do notimpose excessive pressure on the small farms: monopolisation of the land, speculation in agricultural produce, etc.; • the states do not favour urban and industrial water use in an unbalanced fashion and intensive operations of low water efficiency; • the economic players and water companies do not impose uniform technical models in the name of “modernisation” and “water saving”; • the frameworks for “modernising” water in agriculture take account of the practices, experiences and teachings of the historic use of water by small farmers.

10. Conclusions: seven propositions • Guarantee the historical rights for the use of, and fair access to, water for the small farmers of the South, including guaranteeing their land-holding rights. • Incorporate the right to water to guarantee food security into national and international rights. Incorporate into the positive rights over water the right to irrigate farmland, to water stock and to fish for small farmer populations. • Support the implementation of observatories and instruments for the joint management of water by a variety of parties (including use monitoring), thus guaranteeing that small-farmer representatives are involved. • Strengthen the powers of civil society and the small farmers of the South and involve them in decision-making on water management.

11. Conclusions: seven propositions • Increase and re-direct investments from the states, international public aid and bilateral and multilateral finance from the associations towards low-cost agricultural water programmes for the benefit of the small farmers of the South. • Boost investment inanother “modernisation” of the agricultural systems of the South, water users, by improving and adapting small-farming practices already in existence for the collective and individual management of the resource (collecting, distributing, sharing and drainage). • Promote efficient, low-cost agricultural water control techniques: both those of the South, and those from the North in adapted form.

12. Thank you