Agriculture: Crop and Irrigation Sub-Sector

Abstract

The basin mainly consists of areas where water scarcity is the main constraint to development. However, it is not simply the low levels of rainfall that make rain-fed agriculture largely unviable in these areas, it is also the extreme variability of rainfall, which often results in a cycle of drought years followed by years of excessive rain. They can best be described as non-equilibrium environments, prone to temporal variations in available water and biomass for grazing. On the basis of the original terms of reference and the issues raised by the inception report, the components of the irrigation study are summarized as: 1.)Documentation of the biophysical and socio-economic factors influencing rainfed and irrigated agricultural development in the basin.2.) Documentation of the status of rainfed and irrigated agriculture, its role in food security and poverty alleviation and the potential for improvements 3.) Documentation of the potential for rainfed and irrigated agriculture using marginal water and soil resources, particularly, salt tolerant crops that can be grown with brackish water or grown in salt affected soils 4.) Assessment of irrigation requirements under different cropping systems.5.) Identification of strategies for putting in place mechanisms for incentives and disincentives for farmers employing efficient and inefficient irrigation systems respectively. 6.) Identify feasible project that could be undertaken to promote irrigated agriculture in the study areas. There is need for these projects to be aimed at: 1. Development of alternative land use systems and cropping patterns for improved water use in various agro-ecologies and socio-economic situations that are economically competitive and respond to changing markets and demands. 2. Development and transfer of alternative irrigation technologies suitable for irrigation in these alternative land use systems at high efficiency. 3. Developing new guidelines for irrigation scheduling under water scarcity conditions. Conventional guidelines are suitable only under normal water supply.4. Developing methodologies for the assessment of water use at basin level of representative areas for evaluating consumed and recoverable water and economic returns. 5. Improved crop materials( germplasm) for higher WUE in addition to the conventional target of high yield. 6. Evaluation of the environmental consequences of a conservative management of water under scarcity and ways to overcome these consequences. 7. Maintaining a balance between water allocation for food and for environment under dry conditions. 8. Socioeconomic incentives for improved water management at the farm level with policies required. In order to plan crop yield improvement programs for a given target drought-prone area the following steps are essential · Characterize the major patterns of drought stress and their frequency of occurrence in the target environment. · Evaluate crop response to the major drought patterns (simulation modeling) · Match crop phenology (growth period, sowing, flowering, seed filling) with most favorable period of soil moisture and climatic regimes · Develop a strategy for the optimal use of supplementary irrigation, when available · Increase available soil water to crop through agronomic management practices · Identify plant traits that would maximize (i) use of available soil moisture in transpiration (ii) production of biomass per unit water transpired, and (iii) partitioning into seed, thereby conferring enhanced crop water productivity.