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Crop Water Productivity Improvement

Visit website http://cpwf-theme1.irri.org/default.htm

Video http://www.irri.org/video.asp

Introduction

In areas where populations are booming, agricultural and non-agricultural sectors are increasingly competing for water supplies. Theme 1 focuses on farming methods than can help boost ‘crop per drop’—enhancing food security and livelihoods while keeping water diverted for agriculture at year 2000 levels.

The Theme contributes to the CPWF’s overall goal of growing more food with less water by developing water-efficient and drought-tolerant crops; introducing improved farming practices; enhancing management tools that give farmers timely access to water; and promoting policies and institutions that help farmers take advantage of these advances.

By growing crop varieties that can tolerate water stress and adopting improved water management methods, farmers will reduce the risk of crop failure from drought, salinity, water-logging and floods. This in turn will allow them to increase production on marginal lands and to cope with short-term or medium-term water deficits under both irrigated and rainfed conditions.

Research questions

Water efficient crops

Which traits should be prioritized in molecular techniques to increase the efficiency of conventional plant breeding to improve water productivity in crops?
How can water productivity be maintained for crops growing under extended periods of mild water deficit and brief periods of severe water deficit?

Water-saving farm practices

How can advances in information technologies help develop better frameworks to analyze and predict crop water productivity in different environments?
Which cropping patterns and management practices enhance production and farmers’ income without increasing water input?

Need-based water supply

How can the management of irrigation systems be improved to match water supplies to field water requirements, and to make more effective use of unevenly distributed rainfall and water storages?
Which sustainable strategies can improve production and water productivity in land that is degraded due to water logging and salinization?

Policies and institutions

What types of policies and institutional arrangements will promote farmer adoption of water productivity-enhancing technologies?
How can lessons from experiences in participatory research and extension in other areas be applied?

Impacts and Outputs

For donors and policymakers

Policies and institutional arrangements that will promote farmers’ adoption of water productivity-enhancing technologies;
Research-based recommendations on future options in plant breeding and natural resource management

For rural communities

Evaluation of small-scale technologies for accessing, storing, using and saving water
Local solutions to loss of biodiversity, land and water degradation, and insecure water supply

For planners and water managers

Interventions that enhance water productivity at the agro-ecological system level
Innovative approaches to water allocation, salinity management and cost recovery

For NGOs and implementers

Best practices in problem appraisal
Participatory varietal selection and natural resource management
Impact-evaluation methodologies including appropriate indicators

For researchers

Tools and proven methodologies for germ plasm development, remote sensing, and short- and long-term weather forecasting
Improved systems for development, monitoring, and evaluation of projects
Identification of potential collaborators