Terms of Reference of the inquiry

Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) in delivering development outcomes, particularly with regard to the linkages between food security, biosecurity and national security issues.

Project Title: LWR 2014/074 Developing Approaches to Enhance Farmer Water Management Skills in Sindh, Baluchistan and Punjab in , ACIAR sponsored

Project Background: The project LWR 2014/074 is one of the three projects of Australian Water Program for Pakistan. All three of these projects famously known as, the irrigation project (LWR 2014/074) groundwater project and policy project forms a triangle of Australian sponsored knowledge assistance to Pakistan. These projects are being executed in three of major provinces of Pakistan facing serious water crisis in terms of shortages, unjustified consumptions and governance problems. The project LWR 2014/074 is a research project led by University of with Dr. Sandra H. Mustafa as its project leader. In Pakistan this project is led by PCRWR (Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources) an apex federal body mandated to conduct research in all aspects of water resources. PCRWR also holds lead in groundwater project of Australian Water Program. Given its expertise, PCRWR is responsible for carrying out research in irrigation and water resources management by supplementing its knowledge and human resource. In this project, PCRWR is teamed up with CSIRO (Common Wealth and Scientific Industrial Research Organization) to test state of the art, and farmer friendly tools for irrigation and nutrient monitoring in soil. PCRWR has a history of demonstrating efficient irrigation techniques through various development projects to farmers. PCRWR is a federal government research organization therefore it also receives federal government funding to execute various research projects aiming at improving various water resources management and agricultural livelihood management issues right from Himalayan glaciers to costal lines of Arabian seas, covering three major deserts in between. In project LWR 2014/074 being a national lead, PCRWR’s responsibility is to coordinate with other national partners for completing the deliverables in close coordination with national and international teams. The second partner institution in this project is Social Sciences Research Institute of Pakistan of Pakistan Agricultural Research Council, to cover social sciences research impacts of this project. Their role may best describe as, how much is the social impact of learning approaches in improving farmer’s water management skills in Pakistan? The third partner in this project is SOFT (Society of Facilitators and Trainers) which is an organization of volunteers working closely with farmers to disseminate irrigation best practices from PCRWR, CSIRO and learning methods from University of Canberra.

Project Goal: To develop tools and approaches for increasing farmers’ irrigation management skills and hence livelihoods on small and middle-sized irrigated farms

Project Objectives:

i. Determine the successful elements of existing on-farm irrigation water management initiatives and farmer training models in Pakistan ii. Develop and test farmer tools for on-farm soil water and nutrient monitoring tools and their supply chains iii. Develop and test effective, efficient and scalable approaches to improving farmers’ irrigation water and nutrient management skills iv. Identify the effects of improving farmers’ irrigation skills on irrigation profitability and social capital of farming households

Project Rationale for Pakistan:

• Irrigation is critical for Pakistan’s food security and economic development

• Overuse of water is a key issue

o Farmer’s believe more water results in higher yields

o Science does not support this notion • Access to and adoption of new water management technologies is poor among small and medium sized land holders

• Existing extension services have not addressed water management or demonstrated significant scale out to other farmers

Project Conceptual framework

Targeting gap areas in Situational Analysis of Working with farmers terms of capacity, exisitng best practices (bottom up approach of techniques and and gaps development) technology

Documenting farmer's experience to create a new model Improving farmers Sharing new model (best livlihood and self •Capacity building of practices/lessons learnt) suffiicency eliminating farmers, researchers, with other instituitons pressure on public scientisits and exchequer practioners involved

ACIAR’s support in terms of National policies and food security Like rest of the developing world, irrigated agriculture is a less profitable business in Pakistan with high resource input and unjustified output. Pakistan is an agrarian economy, whereas the contribution of agriculture in national GDP has reduced from 68% in 1960’s to 20.9 percent in 2015 (MoF, 2016). Agriculture is the largest consumer of water resources, is the largest “waster” of it as well. Indus basin receives an average inflow of 193 BCM, out of which 128 BCM is diverted to canals for agricultural use (UNDP, 2014). Total system losses in one of the longest irrigation system in the world are 60% enabling only 51.29 BCM of water available for farmers to irrigate their crop (Hussain et al., 2011). Unfortunately, due to poor application techniques of irrigation, this actual water volume available for consumptive use in agriculture remained only 45.12 BCM. The population of Pakistan has increased from 132 million in 1998 to 210 million presently putting more stress on existing food-water system. Government of Pakistan has envisioned this crisis in water-food-energy nexus, aiming at improving water use efficiency by 20% and reducing food insecure population from 60% to 30% until year 2025 (MoPD&R, 2014). Similarly, in recently approved National Water Policy 2018, irrigation inefficiency is regarded as the major factor in lower growth of agriculture sector. The policy promotes on farm water conversation to enhance water productivity particularly for small and medium sized farmers (MoWR, 2018). The project LWR 2014/074 in ACIAR’s support is line with the national strategic development goals and policies in place.

ACIAR as trusted development partner;

Pakistan has a long history of enjoying Australian program and collaboration in various aspects of development, such as; higher education in Australia, water resources management, agriculture, livestock, agriculture value chain, horticulture, trade and commerce, health and WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene). Australian High Commission in Pakistan is also doing great services in strengthening the air of trust with various ministries of Government of Pakistan and . Through project LWR 2014/074 in particular and Australia’s Water Program in general, ACIAR has extended a unique support to government of Pakistan its organizations. Unlike other aid programs, Australian Aid requires commitment from the Government of Pakistan by the mutual agreement of time commitment from its employees. The Australian institutions involved promotes on exchange and transfer of knowledge from both sides rather than its trickle down to Pakistan from Australia. In agriculture and water resources, Australian partners have to share very good learning experiences from Australia. This approach of finding common grounds to define a right solution for the problems of irrigation and water management in Pakistan has made Australian Aid as the most trusted partner.

ACIAR’s role in fostering confidence, stability, sustainability, capacity, community- determined goals and best outcomes, particularly by utilizing local procurement and smaller/local entities;

As described earlier, ACIAR’s support to Pakistan is more a knowledge collaboration than just a financial assistance. Government Institutions definitely require financial assistance to develop the capacity of local institutions through education opportunities in Australia. The human resource after successful accomplishment of training in Australia forms a very conducive environment for organizational development once they are back to Pakistan. Moreover, the alumni also become a source of inspiration for youth to seek more education opportunities in Australia and serve Pakistan in a better way after their return. In the project LWR 2014/074, a total of 18 individuals from partner organizations were trained in Australia for new learning technique, moisture and nutrient management tools. After their return, within one year these trained professionals have delivered two major trainings (training 60 individuals) and one short training (training 10 individuals). Training programs already planned in the project have built confidence among women and youth of farming community as well as fresh university graduates.

In this project, only two tools; soil moisture sensors and nutrient management tools are imported as they cannot yet be made in Pakistan. Following services are being imparted to farmers1 involved in this project, though local enterprises and capacities; • One of the soil moisture monitoring tools is being developed and provided by PCRWR. • PCRWR is also providing satellite based Irrigation Advisory services to farmers, advising farmers how much water their crops have consumed and how much they need to irrigate. This message is disseminated through a text message in Urdu language. • Through this project, farmers are connected to soil testing facilities established by provincial government • Farmers are linked with ASP’s (Area Services Providers) trained by provincial government for the acquisition of services, such as; Laser land levelling of soil, agricultural implements for precision agriculture • Several other on farm water conservation best practices

Increasing the participation and engagement of women in private sector development opportunities;

This project does not directly link to engagement of women in private sector development opportunities. However, indirectly a high emphasis is given to encourage the participation of women in training opportunities under this project. The staffs engaged in this project for the duration of project is predominately females’ staff. Females form 50% Facilitators force who directly work with farmers in these projects. These facilitators mostly comprising of young university graduates and farmer women are free to engage in an employment opportunity for their facilitation skills. This project provides equal opportunity to young females to share their experience and knowledge while working with project teams. The project team regard vocal and motivated female farmers as an asset and particularly focus on their nurturing. These female youth resource may serve a future facilitator for “organic transmission” of knowledge during later years of project.

Recommendations • ACIAR’s fellowships are very much supportive to building Pakistan’s capacity in field of water resources and agriculture. Unfortunately, these opportunities are scattered world-wide and Pakistani researcher are able to gain rare opportunities, whereas the requirements are very high. An increase in high education fellowships for Pakistan will foster long term relationship for ACIAR’s operations in Pakistan.

1 The project was started in September 2016 and site selection was formally commenced in May 2017. In one year 13 project sites in 3 districts of 3 provinces have been established connecting 500 farmers and facilitators through this project. By November 2018, number of sites will increase to 48 sites in the three provinces connecting more than 2000 farmers. While believing on the organic dissemination of learning approaches in this project, number of farmers expected to increase up to 5000 by the end of this project in year 2020. Prepared by:

• Engr Faizan ul Hasan, Director (Water Management)/ National Project Coordinator (LWR 2014/074), Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources,

• Engr. Bareerah Fatima, Program Liaison Officer, Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources,

References

Hussain, I. et al. (2011) ‘Water balance, supply and demand and irrigation efficiency of Indus Basin’, Pakistan Economic and Social Review, 49(1), pp. 13–38.

MoF (2016) ‘Chapter 02, Agriculture’, in Pakistan Economic Survey 2015-16. Islamabad: Government of Pakistan, pp. 19–40. Available at: http://www.finance.gov.pk/survey/chapters_17/02-Agriculture.pdf.

Ministry of Planning, Development and Reforms (2014). Pakistan Vision 2025. Government of Pakistan, Islamabad, pp. 120.

Ministry of Water Resources (2018). National Water Policy. Government of Pakistan, Islamabad, pp. 44.