Water and the Rural Poor: Interventions for Improving Livelihoods in Asia

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Water and the Rural Poor: Interventions for Improving Livelihoods in Asia RAP Publication 2014/08 Interventions for improving livelihoods in Asia Water and the rural poor Interventions for improving livelihoods in Asia Puspa Raj Khanal Guido Santini Douglas J. Merrey FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS REGIONAL OFFICE FOR ASIA AND THE PACIFIC, BANGKOK, 2014 The designations employed and the presentation of material in this information product do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) concerning the legal or development status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The mention of specific companies or products of manufacturers, whether or not these have been patented, does not imply that these have been endorsed or recommended by FAO in preference to others of a similar nature that are not mentioned. The views expressed in this information product are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of FAO. ISBN 978-92-5-108263-8 (print) E-ISBN 978-92-5-108264-5 (PDF) © FAO, 2014 FAO encourages the use, reproduction and dissemination of material in this information product. Except where otherwise indicated, material may be copied, downloaded and printed for private study, research and teaching purposes, or for use in non-commercial products or services, provided that appropriate acknowledgement of FAO as the source and copyright holder is given and that FAO’s endorsement of users’ views, products or services is not implied in any way. All requests for translation and adaptation rights, and for resale and other commercial use rights should be made via www.fao.org/contact-us/licence-request or addressed to [email protected]. FAO information products are available on the FAO website (www.fao.org/publications) and can be purchased through [email protected]. Cover photograph: ©FAO/Ishara Kodikara Contents Foreword v Preface vi Executive summary xiv 1 Introduction: water and rural livelihoods 1 Poverty, agriculture and water in Asia 1 Goals of the study 3 Methods used 3 The subregions of Asia 4 The sustainable livelihoods framework 6 Livelihood zoning 10 Poverty and water linkages 10 Organization of this report 13 2 Rural livelihoods, water and agriculture: 14 trends and transformations in Asia Rural livelihoods in transition 14 The ongoing transformations: agriculture, diet and economy 16 Agricultural and dietary transformations 20 Food vs fuel: expanding biofuel production 22 The growing non-farm sector: neo-agriculture 23 Trends in water resource management 24 Irrigation development trends and challenges 28 Interventions for improving livelihoods in Asia i The booming groundwater economy 31 Natural resource degradation 33 Climate change and its uncertainties 35 Managing the transition: a key challenge for 38 future water control and rural livelihood 3 Mapping poverty, water and rural livelihoods in Asia 39 Introduction 39 Child malnutrition as an indicator of poverty 39 Mapping livelihoods in rural areas 42 Livelihood systems as the unit of analysis 42 Analysing poverty, water and 47 agriculture across livelihood systems Poverty 47 Agriculture and irrigation 50 Assessing the potential for poverty 56 reduction through water interventions Water supply: assessing the potential for water interventions 56 Water demand: assessing the need for water interventions 57 Assessing the physical potential for water interventions 60 Priority for action: potential for poverty 65 reduction through water interventions Priority in water-constrained areas 65 Priority in water-endowed areas 68 Conclusion 72 4 Water interventions for improving rural livelihoods 73 The changing context of water investments in Asia 73 ii Water and the rural poor Targeting interventions to different farmers’ groups 74 Targeting interventions to women 78 Prioritizing interventions to different categories of farmers 78 Intervention strategies 80 Intervention options 83 Rainwater management through intermediate 84 forms of water control Groundwater management 88 Modernization of surface irrigation 90 Improving FMIS and developing new 93 community-based irrigation schemes Addressing water vulnerabilities 93 Enhancing water storage 96 Delta and lowland water management 97 Livestock-water interventions 99 Water management for aquaculture and fisheries 100 Climate change considerations 102 Contextualizing interventions 103 Conditions for the success of water interventions 108 Enabling policies 108 Rural infrastructure 109 Land tenure and water rights 111 Providing targeted subsidies and financial packages 112 Conclusion 113 5 Conclusions: water, agriculture and beyond 114 Water and rural livelihoods: the new dynamism 114 Interventions for improving livelihoods in Asia iii Investing in neo-agriculture 116 Towards the future 117 References 119 Web sites consulted 135 iv Water and the rural poor Foreword Poverty continues to be a major concern in Asia despite the region’s high economic growth and rapid rural transformation. Most of the poor live in areas where natural resource conditions are suboptimal and water-related constraints are the root cause of low production and increasing vulnerability to natural disasters and climate variability. The importance of securing water avail- ability for rural livelihoods is therefore increasing. As water is fundamental to productive agricul- ture and other livelihood needs, how water is used and managed will have a significant impact on alleviating hunger and poverty. This publication is the product of a joint effort by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) to target rural livelihood support through water interventions in Asia. It assesses the current trends and transformations in water and rural livelihoods and maps the links between poverty and water to identify those rural areas that will benefit most from water interventions and those where water interventions will not have significant impacts on poverty levels. It shows that tremendous poten- tial exists to improve rural livelihoods through investing in water and emphasizes the importance of securing water availability in the light of population growth, economic development and climate change projections. It equally argues for increased attention to the rural non-farm sector, and calls for investments in ‘neo-agriculture’ that combines both the rural farm and non-farm sec- tors, and facilitates rural-urban production and consumption linkages to induce rural change. I hope that this report will contribute to improved understanding of water and poverty linkages in rural Asia, and help to guide policies and investments in innovative water interventions by mobilizing government and civil society support. Hiroyuki Konuma Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Asia and Pacific FAO Interventions for improving livelihoods in Asia v Preface Water has always played an important role in Asian agriculture, allowing the continent to keep pace with growing population and demand for food. The Green revolution, which relied heavily on irrigation, has lifted millions of poor farmers out of starvation and poverty and contributed to the fast socio-economic development of the continent. A few decades later, affordable drilling and pumping technologies have revolutionized agriculture again, providing farmers with cheap and reliable access to water for their crops. As the livelihoods of the rural people are transforming once again, under the combined effects of rapid socio-economic development, urbanization, profound structural transformation of the national economies and increased competition for land and water resources, water still remains central to rural development policies. The issues, however, are more complex than in the past, and new interventions in water require a much more strategic approach, with much better under- standing of the factors affecting the success of water investments. Since its inception in 1945, FAO has supported water development in agriculture. The focus of its work has evolved progressively from infrastructure development to irrigation and drainage manage- ment and, later, to water governance and the management of multiple uses of water. It acknowl- edges the increasing complexity of the water-agriculture-poverty nexus and is developing method- ologies to address it. For the last 10 years, we have joined forces with our partners at IFAD to give specific attention to investments in water that ensure sustainable and effective returns in terms of rural poverty alleviation. We have developed livelihood-based decision support tools and approaches and we have engaged with our partners in the countries to understand, with them, the key criteria of success of investments in water. Such approaches recognize the diversity and complexity of the livelihood contexts by tailoring interventions to rural population priorities and livelihood strategies. This study has been the opportunity to share our tools and approaches with experts from selected countries in Asia and learn from them, building, together, more sophisticated and more robust approaches, adapted to the specific conditions of the continent. We are proud to have been associ- ated with this initiative and trust that it will help designing better and more effective water-based poverty reduction programmes in the region in the future. Moujahed Achouri Director
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