Saving water in the Maghreb: farmers and researchers have joined forces

02/11/2009 - Article

How can water saving procedures be introduced in the irrigation schemes of the Maghreb? For the SIRMA project team, the answer lies in action research, initial and refresher training, and stakeholder networks. After four years, Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia are now seeing results.

Water is scarce in the Maghreb: over the past 30 years, rainfall levels have dropped by 20 to 30%, depending on the area. Furthermore, in the region, irrigated agriculture, which consumes more than 70% of the available water and returns very little of it to the environment, is very common. Moreover, the irrigation method practised is generally immersion, which consumes vast amounts of water. How can practices be changed? What are the conditions for success? It was these two questions that the researchers involved in the SIRMA project addressed, along with local stakeholders, from 2004 to 2009.
" We worked with farmers to help them develop their own ways of organizing their operations"
"We were not looking to revolutionize things ", says Jean-Yves Jamin, from the Water Resource Management, Actors and Uses Joint Research Unit. "We used things that were known in theory but were not applicable as far as farmers were concerned ." How did they become applicable, then? "We worked with farmers to enable them to develop their own ways of organizing more effective water resource management , the researcher adds. This was the key to the project: rather than applying model organizational structures to a society, the researchers looked at the methods already in use among farmers' groups and encouraged other farmers to base themselves on them. In Tadla, Morocco, the researchers observed that professional milk collection organizations were behind an improvement in dairy production. Those organizations had broadened their scope to include improving living conditions in local communities, and participated in identifying and funding social projects. However, there was no such structure for water resource management. The scientists therefore worked with the farmers to analyse the current structure for milk and how it could be extended to include water resources.
Pumping regulation contracts were also a major line of research under the project. Farmers are drawing increasing amounts of water from underground, as that water is freely accessible to all. However, as use is not coordinated, the water is drawn without any consideration of the state of the resource. How can pumping operations be coordinated? To answer that question, the researchers and farmers discussed how farmers see this hidden resource and how it functions. Possible ways of coordinating operations by setting up common boreholes or organizing individual users were looked at. As far as the State is concerned in such countries, regulations, which primarily mean bans, are the main tool, but they are not applied. Through role playing, their representatives were made aware that drawing water illegally from boreholes is the only irrigation solution for some farmers.
The SIRMA skills network on water in the Maghreb has just been set up
Lastly, collective public irrigation schemes, which are much less efficient than private schemes, are a subject of concern among decision-makers. In the oases of southern Tunisia, for instance, the researchers adopted a multidisciplinary approach that revealed the prevailing technical constraints, but also farmers' perceptions and the social and organizational constraints facing them. The results opened the way for supporting them in their attempts to solve the problems encountered.
This progress was made possible by setting up interconnected human networks–the SIRMA family–that include higher education establishments, farmers' leaders, research institutions, research consultancies, etc. The challenge now is to perpetuate the scientific coherence of those networks, by organizing long-term scientific and technical management. With this in mind, a skills network–RCP Sirma sur l’eau au Maghreb –has just been set up. It will serve to support young research teams in several countries and ensure that plans for regional Masters in water management and training and refresher courses materialize.

SIRMA in a nutshell
388 Moroccan, Algerian, Tunisian and French students trained
166 articles published, including 28 in international peer-reviewed journals
19 PhD theses
33 Masters
17 regional courses

Project ID card
Name: SIRMA – Economie d’eau en systèmes irrigués au Maghreb
Duration: 2004-2009
Funding: 2 million euros from the French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs priority solidarity fund (FSP)