Local Feedback Meeting in Ethiopia: WATDEV continues to strive the adoption of Climate-Resilient Agriculture

The two-day event was organised by the local partner Water & Land Resource Centre (WLRC), in collaboration with ASARECA, CIHEAM-Bari, and in the presence of AICS Cairo. Moreover, a field visit for experience sharing was organized in the Holeta area. The event focused on innovative agricultural techniques, including the preparation and application of liquid vermicompost fertilizer and hydroponic farming systems for strawberries as a method to combat Fusarium wilt. Participants also exchanged best practices for commercial avocado farm management.

Bringing together a diverse group of stakeholders: farmers, Water Users Associations, farmer cooperatives, community leaders, and researchers with WATDEV partners, the Local Feedback Meeting aimed to discuss and validate the Best Management Practices (BMPs) scenarios identified for Ethiopia, ensuring their coherence with the local priorities and real needs on the ground based on farmers??? practical experience.

The event commenced with opening remarks by Honorable Ato Tewachew Abebe, the Member of Parliament representing the constituency, followed by Dr. Gaetano Ladisa, WATDEV Project Manager at CIHEAM-Bari. Dr. Ladisa emphasised that WATDEV is more than a research initiative, it is a partnership for change, connecting farmers, researchers, and decision-makers to shape the future of agricultural and water management in Ethiopia and beyond.

Ms. Concetta Bianco, WATDEV Project Coordinator at AICS Cairo, provided the participants with an overview about WATDEV project latest updates, sharing recent achievements and upcoming implementation steps. While Mr. Moses Odeke, from ASARECA, outlined the meeting???s objectives, stressing the importance of learning from local experiences to validate feasibility findings and support the development of practical BMP implementation protocols.

The technical part of the day started with ISRIC presenting the Feasibility Studies findings, analysing simulated BMPs scenarios by the modelling team as well as providing detailed feedback on the indicators and assumptions used in the model. The presentation detailed the indicators and assumptions used and highlighted the three BMPs selected for Ethiopia: agroforestry, composting, and strengthening of Water Users??? Association (WUA). These practices have shown strong potential to improve productivity and crop quality. An interactive Q&A session followed, allowing farmers to share their practical experience and clarify technical aspects.

Several Ethiopian farmers have already adopted these BMPs following targeted training activities, achieving remarkable results. One inspiring example is Tringo Molla Abiye, a woman head of household who significantly increased her productivity and income thanks to improved compost management. ???This project has given me a new life,??? she said.

Her story along with the active engagement of local communities, underscores the added value of WATDEV???s participatory approach, developing tools that are scientifically robust, yet practical and accessible to those facing daily challenges of water scarcity and climate change.

The Local Feedback Meetings reaffirmed WATDEV???s commitment to co-creating solutions with local stakeholders, ensuring that climate-smart water management strategies are both effective and sustainable. By integrating scientific research with community-driven insights, WATDEV continues to pave the way for resilient agricultural systems in East Africa.

Photo Album

Related Posts

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Scroll to Top

Ude Kebele groundwater irrigation scheme under the Adaa Becho Groundwater Irrigation system (ABGIS) in the Awash Basin

It is a new intervention area with perspectives to be expanded. It is therefore envisaged that the lessons from other countries could be scaled out in this area.

Ada’a-Becho Groundwater Irrigation (ABGIS) is located in Ada’a Wereda some 50 km from Addis Ababa. The Adama road passes nearby the scheme and has no access limitation.  This scheme is part of Ada’a-Bacho Irrigation Development Project that comprises three conjugate Kebeles (i.e., Dhankaka, Ude and Qallitty) in Ada’a District of East Shawa Zone, Oromia Regional State.

The Ude Kebele Groundwater Irrigation Site is small, scheme selected to demonstrate groundwater irrigation practice demonstration sites as it is new irrigation development area will be a learning site for a medium scale community owned groundwater irrigation development in Ethiopia.

ABGIS landscape is one of the low reliefs that slopes gently north-west and south east wards. Apart from close to the hills virtually all slopes are nearly less than 3- 4%, with the majority of the slopes of 0-2%. 

The climatic variables of the project area are highly governed by the topography of the area (mainly altitude). The highland area lies at an altitude of over 2300 m asl and covers 17.5% of the project area. Mean annual temperature of this part of the project area ranges from 12.50C to 160C.

The major crops produced include Teff, chick pea, wheat, barley, vetch, and maize.  Few farmers also produce tomato and onion as cash crops. Crop production in the area is by and large rain-dependent. But in few farmers produce vegetables twice a year using pumped water from Mojo and Waddecha rivers.

The problems in ABGIS are connected with the limited experience in fruit crop production.

Koga Irrigation System (KIS) in the Abbay Basin

KIS is an established and relatively well performing irrigation scheme in Ethiopia. In here besides Irrigation water management, there are also success stories in watershed management.

Koga is located some 40 km from Bahri Dar town (Regional capital of Amhara Regional State. The  Bahir Dar –Addis Ababa highway passes through the scheme (Fig 2), hence the scheme is year round accessible.

Koga irrigation system comprises of 19.7 km of lined main canal, 52 km of lined secondary canals, 156 km of unlined tertiary canals, 905 km of unlined quaternary canals and 11 lined Night Storage Reservoirs (NSRs). The main canal was designed to provide irrigation water for 24 h during irrigation period.

There are 12 secondary canals designed for 12 h irrigation supply each covering an area of irrigated land ranging from 220 ha to over 1000 ha. Tertiary canals are designed for 12 h irrigation supply. The area irrigated by a tertiary canal range between 20 ha to 65 ha. The quaternary canals have a capacity of irrigating 8–16 ha of land while field canals will serve an area of 2.0 ha within the quaternary unit. The maximum field canal design capacity is 30 l/s.

KIS is the best performing among many community-managed irrigation schemes. Unlike other schemes this was designed and developed as an integrated watershed and irrigation development project.

Among the problems associated to the KIS are Seasonal water shortage and associated conflicts between Irrigation water user associations, low irrigation water application efficiency, catchment degradation. In order to increase water productivity in the KIS, water saving technologies will be promoted.

The Gezira irrigation scheme

The Gezira Scheme is located between the Blue Nile and the White Nile Rivers within a semi-arid agro-climatic zone. In terms of accessibility, it is easily accessible by Wad Medani road and the trip between Wad Medani, the capital of the Gezira State and headquarter of the scheme (Barakat), and Khartoum takes about three hours. The scheme is one of the largest irrigation schemes in the region with 880,000 hectares (ha). It is one of the main sources of foreign currency (cotton export), and food security (wheat, sorghum, vegetables) for Sudan. It has huge infrastructure with a value estimated at about US $ 8 billion. The scheme had played a vital role in the history of irrigation in Sudan and Africa and has become a model for many irrigation schemes in sub-Saharan Africa in terms of design and operation system. Therefore, any research aiming at improving water management in Gezira scheme is not only beneficial to the project, but also to similar projects at national and regional scale.  There are many challenges that the scheme face and urgent need to investigate Best Management Practices (BMPs) that  can overcome these challenges and enhance productivity. Some of these challenges are deterioration of irrigation infrastructure, inefficient water distribution within the scheme, agricultural drainage discharges directly in the Blue Nile without treatment impacting water quality, institutional weakness and instability.

Belbies district

Belbies district is located 20 km south of El Zagazig city between Long. 31o 24′ and 31o 39′ E and Lat. 30o 19′ and 30o 29′ N. It is bounded at the east by Abu Hammad, at the west by Minia El Kammh and in the south by the Tenth of Ramadan City districts.

As a part of the east Nile Delta, Belbies district constitutes a portion of an arid belt of north Egypt. It is characterized by a long dry summer and short temperate winter with a rainfall period from October to March. The climate is hot in summer; the average temperature is in the range of 19.7oC and 34.7oC, while during winter it ranges from 7.4oC and 18.4oC.

Due to intensive agricultural practice, which involves the application of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, many soils and shallow aquifers are contaminated. Consequently, pollution of groundwater has become a major concern in recent years. Wastewater disposed in canals can diffuse in groundwater. Overexploitation of groundwater and intensive irrigation in major canal commands has posed serious problems for groundwater managers in Nile Delta e.g. Sharkia governorate. The development of groundwater resources, technology-oriented management skills, adequate and efficient groundwater monitoring system, empowerment of women in unprivileged areas are among the challenges to be addressed. Indeed, water management projects are one of the priority topics in the political agenda of Egypt.