Water-smart agriculture in East Africa
Agricultural water has been for decades viewed under conventional irrigation attention in terms of public investment to other agricultural water management practices, such as rain water harvesting, that are of much relevance for smallholder-based cases. This among the key message of the Sourcebook on Water-Smart Agriculture in East Africa edited in collaboration by the Global Water Initiative East Africa (GWI-EA), CARE, the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE) and the International Water Management Institute (IWMI). The study is the outcome of the collaboration started in 2013 in East Africa in response to the risk and vulnerability associated with uncertain rainfall regimes and smallholder farming. Under the Global Water Initiative East Africa, the idea emerged in 2013 as a way of supporting a more coherent approach to improved water management in agriculture, building on action research with farmers across three countries – Ethiopia, Tanzania and Uganda – as well as wider sharing of existing knowledge and collaboration between GWI EA, IWMI and WLE.