Agricultural water management in smallholder farming systems: the value of soft components in mesoscale interventions

It provides an overview of ‘soft components’ in mesoscale interventions in AWM strategies targeting rural smallholder farming communities in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and South Asia.

The report specifically addresses lessons learned in individual cases (i.e., who initiated the process, what were the initial investments, how did the out-scaling gain momentum, etc.). Barron and Noel conclude that studies identify five key factors leading to sustainable, natural (land, water, forest) management:

• Policy setting should be inclusive and able to cope with multiple interests;
• Investments must pay: the returns to individuals need to be short term;
• Actions need to build local capacity (empowerment) and address equity in the process;
•  Economies need to be diversified to enable entry into monetary markets as well as increasing the livelihood support net;
•  Research and development implementation need to work better in collaboration to enhance synergies in outputs.

Download report (PDF)