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- 8.Improving water productivity in Karkeh
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8.Improving water productivity in Karkeh |
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Full project title:
Improving On-Farm Agricultural Water Productivity in the Karkheh River Basin
Website: http://www.knowledgebank.irri.org/theme1/PN8.htm
End of project publications:
- Agro-Ecological Zones of the Karkheh River Basin (6.43Mb)
- A Compendium of Review Papers (2Mb)
- Karkheh Report No.2 Proceedings (3Mb)
Water in the Karkheh river basin (KRB) is limited and becoming scarcer as population and demand are increasing. The productivity of rain-fed agriculture is low, conventional irrigation management is poor, cropping systems are suboptimal, and policies and institutions are weak. However, Iran’s agricultural strategy identifies water-productivity improvement as a top priority. The KRB reflects, in many aspects, the problems of water management in other basins in the region. Accordingly, it is intended to link the work in KRB with the Euphrates and Amu Darya river basins, which have been postponed to the next phase of the CP.
The purpose of this project is to help the poor communities in the basin to sustainably improve their income and livelihoods. The objectives of the project are to improve farm and basin water productivity and the sustainable management of the natural-resources base, develop appropriate policies and institutions and enhance the capacity of NARES.
The research will be community-based with full participation of farmers, community leaders, local institutions and policymakers. Three benchmark sites will be selected under rain-fed and irrigated conditions. Experiments and demonstrations will be conducted under researcher and farmer-managed conditions to develop, test, apply and improve the adoption of water- management options. An integrated approach to developing efficient systems will be used. Socioeconomics will form an integral part of the project to ensure a problem-solving approach and a high adoption rate. Special attention will be given to the role of women. Policies and institutional structures will be examined and recommendations communicated. The consequences of the outputs at the basin level will be studied and projections made available. Two of the activities, water productivity levels and existing policies and institutions will also be conducted in the Euphrates and Amu Darya basins.
The project is expected to improve water productivity in target areas of the project but linkages at the basin levels will be made. Improving water productivity will be reflected in farmers’ income and living standards. The challenge will be how to upscale the results to other areas in the basin and the country. This will be attempted though influencing policies and suggesting effective institutions at the community and scheme levels. Conducting relevant activities in the Euphrates and Amu Darya basins will provide additional insight. A dissemination strategy, based on these principles, and using advances in communication, will also be implemented.
The work will be conducted in a partnership of two CG centers (ICARDA and IWMI), four NARES most concerned in the basin (AERI, SPII, and DARI, and the local university Shahid Shamran), one ARI (UC Davis, USA) and, most importantly, the farmers in the basin. The project’s total budget is US$2.253 million over 4 years, of which about one-third is contributed by partners. The partners’ commitments of sizable matching funds and the strong presence of ICARDA and IWMI in Iran and the wider region will ensure a cost-effective and low risk project.