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37. Nile Basin Livestock Water Productivity

Full Title:

Increasing Water-Use Efficiency for Food Production through Better Livestock Management - The Nile River Basin

Website:

http://www.ilri.org/page3rdlevel.asp?pageid=368&menuid=28

Download project proposal [PDF 161Kb]

Livestock products comprise an important component of agricultural production, but they have largely been ignored in water management for food security.  Some knowledge of drinking requirements and the physiology of water in domestic animals exists.  However, the water required for production of animal feed far exceeds what animals drink, varies greatly across agricultural production systems, and has not been reliably determined.  Knowledge of the impact of livestock keeping on water resources has not been adequately synthesized and applied to integrated river basin management, but degradation of water by livestock may exceed the total amount used. 

There is a great need to understand livestock-water interactions for improving livestock-water productivity.  Water used to increase production of animal-based food products for people must be balanced with water demand for crop and fish production, ecosystem services and other human needs.  Area-wide integration of livestock-keeping practices in the context of integrated river basin management is required to encourage a shift in animal production away from areas of conflict for water use.  The general hypothesis is that better management of livestock-water interactions will contribute to increased water-use efficiency for food production in river basins.

This research sets out to improve food security, reduce poverty and enhance agroecosystem health by managing livestock for more effective overall use of water resources in the Nile basin.  It addresses livestock-water interactions in rain-fed pastoral, rain-fed mixed crop-livestock, peri-urban and large-scale irrigation systems all of which are important priorities in the basin.  It addresses two interlinked research and development (R&D) pathways to enhance long-term understanding of livestock-water interactions and to achieve a short-term impact. First, basin-wide mapping, spatial modelling and description of livestock-water hot spots will provide an improved knowledge base for immediate basin and national-policy development.  In the longer term, this policy will help target investment in community-based management of livestock, water and land resources.  Second, immediate improvements in community-based livestock and water management to benefit women and men with minimal investment and available technology will be made. In the longer term, aggregation of local experiences and perspectives of key livestock-water interactions from diverse communities and consideration of their importance to food security and poverty reduction will enhance effectiveness of a future policy for integrated river basin management.  

Project outputs will include training of graduate students, a toolbox of proven tools and methods for water and livestock management, extension materials, policy, awareness workshops, and publications.  These will have a direct impact on community-based livestock and water management and provide decision-support for identifying priority areas or “hot spots” in the Nile basin requiring more detailed R&D.  

A novel R&D partnership, including communities, NGOs, NARES, FAO, and the CGIAR, will combine diverse socioeconomic, NRM, and community-development skills to enhance their collective capacity to undertake integrated livestock and water management and to access requisite technologies and information.  The project anticipates that increased know-how will be up-scaled in subsequent research and in CP synthesis activities to other basins where livestock are important.