Farmer-led irrigation a major contributor to agric development

Buried deep in a long report on water and agriculture by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) — the flagship state of food and agriculture report of 2020 — there is a really important section, signalling a big shift in mainstream thinking about irrigation and the use of water in agriculture.

It focuses on farmer-led irrigation, a theme discussed on this blog quite a few times before, and central to research in our field sites in Zimbabwe’s resettlement areas. Farmer-led irrigation is not a new phenomenon of course, but it has not been central to discussions about irrigation, seen as peripheral and not following “proper” engineering recommendations.

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