Irrigation | Involving informal agricultural supply chain stakeholders in groundwater management

21/03/2018 - Article

A study analysed the role played by informal stakeholders in agricultural supply chains irrigated using groundwater in North Africa. The results, published in Hydrogeology Journal , show that such players are often the catalysts of the expansion of this type of irrigated agriculture. It is therefore particularly appropriate to involve them in sustainable aquifer management. On World Water Day, it is important to remember that groundwater is a major factor in managing water resources worldwide.

Reconciling sustainable groundwater management and a dynamic agricultural sector is a vital issue in North Africa, as in many other world regions. A recent study gave some tips for tackling this challenge: including the whole range of stakeholders in irrigated agricultural supply chains, both formal and informal, in groundwater management processes .
The analysis looked at high-added-value market garden cropping of onions and tomatoes in three irrigated areas of North Africa: the Saïss plain in Morocco, the Zibans in Algeria and the Kairouan region of Tunisia.
The work in question was done by CIRAD, the Institut agronomique et vétérinaire Hassan II (Morocco), the École nationale supérieure agronomique (Algeria) and IRSTEA (France), under the Groundwater-Arena project. It gave rise to an article in Hydrogeology Journal, which was recently chosen as "editor’s choice" for its innovative interdisciplinary approach, linking water supplies and supply chain stakeholders.

Dynamic agriculture that puts pressure on water resources

In North Africa, groundwater use for irrigation has developed considerably over the past 50 years. This growth in agricultural activity has had economic and social benefits, but has also resulted in over-exploitation of groundwater resources.
By securing access to water, the increased dynamism of the agricultural sector has resulted in the rapid development of indirect activities in both the upstream and downstream segments of production chains (traders, distributors, equipment, seed and input suppliers, etc). These supply chain players often operate on the fringes of public policy and are generally described as "informal" or "unstructured", and seen as participating in "groundwater anarchy".

Key agricultural development players

The role of these players linked to agricultural activities is largely overlooked by public policy and had not previously been studied in any depth. Yet the study demonstrated that they are often the catalysts of the development of irrigation using groundwater. In addition to helping boost production and improve market access, they supply other services such as loans and grants and play a role in disseminating information and innovations. All this because formal agricultural support services (banks, insurance, training, technical information, etc) are inadequate or not suitable for the new economy.

Involving these players in groundwater management

"Despite their key role in developing irrigation, these informal players are rarely consulted when it comes to managing water resources or involved in the debate on measures to ensure sustainable groundwater use", says Caroline Lejars, an agro-economist at CIRAD and lead author of the study. "Yet involving some of these players in water management regulatory processes would be a particularly smart move." The first step in this direction, according to the authors, would be to study the network of such players to pinpoint those who play a key role in developing groundwater pumping and irrigation. The second stage would be to involve them as vectors for innovations leading to more sustainable farming practices, or to include them in consultation and certification processes on a catchment area scale, and not just on a production chain scale. The main challenge is to determine how to involve them in such processes while allowing for their own personal development strategies.