Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture 

CA Info Bulletin No. 6 - 18 October 2005 - 

 

The CA assesses current knowledge and experience to identify the most effective investment and management decisions in water management for agriculture for reducing poverty and enhancing food and environmental security. 

Apologies for Cross-Postings

News

The Assessment

 

The Assessment is coming into shape. First drafts of thirteen of the eighteen chapters of the assessment were produced through a consultative process, critiqued by 8 to 10 reviewers, and debated with all the chapter teams at a recent workshop. Messages are taking shape for the summary for decision makers. Writing teams have ample material to prepare an improved second draft, due on the 15th of December for wide review. 

 

The draft chapters are on key questions of water management in agriculture: rainfed agriculture, irrigation, groundwater, marginal quality water, fisheries, livestock, rice, land degradation,  river basins, water productivity, poverty, policies & institutions and ecosystems. 

 

Looking at water management in agriculture with different lenses.

To cross-fertilize ideas and to broaden the specialist perspective, all the chapters were scrutinized through other lenses by expert working groups specializing in gender, health, climate change, civil society’s role and outreach. Representative of these working group were at the recent synthesis workshop in Habarana to work with specialist chapter teams.

 

An updated timeline for the preparation of the Assessment Book.

-          Nov 2005 to April 2006: chapter finalization with internal reviews across chapters, scientific review and wide consultations and reviews with chapter networks

-          April 2006 –  editing and publishing

-          Through  July 2006 – editing, layout,

-          August 2006– delivery of the Summary for Decision Makers (SDM) in Stockholm

-          Aug – Sep 2006 – publishing

-          Sept/Oct 2006 – delivery of assessment at a launch (to be organized)

 

You can participate in developing chapters through online discussions or by reviewing the chapters.  Please visit the CA website to find out more. If you want to participate in the next review process, please email:  comp.assessment@cgiar.org.

See the Book outline with its chapters.

 

Workshops

 

Putting the pieces of the puzzle together: the Habarana Workshop, Sri Lanka

The Assessment is prepared through a participatory and consultative process with the teams and with a large network of experts. In order to reach good integration across chapters, the coordinating lead author of each chapter met for the second time from 26 to 30 September 2005, in Habarana, Sri Lanka after extensive on-line and face to face meetings.

 

The workshop’s main objectives were to: harmonize content across chapters; integrate cross-cutting issues including gender, health, etc. into various chapters; respond to and incorporate reviewers’ comments in the assessment; develop scenarios and the scenario chapter further; and develop the summary for decision makers (SDM).

 

The workshop, held over five days, consisted of 50 experts involved in the CA. Forty chapter authors, representing each chapter writing team, participated in the workshop. The workshop allowed maximum interaction across chapters, between authors and reviewers (a team of five); between authors and the writing editor (Bruce Ross-Larson); as well as between authors and the experts on cross-cutting issues and chapters for the CA as a whole (poverty, policy/institutions, ecosystems, gender, health, climate change, future scenarios).

 

For more on the workshop and the report; or contact the CA Secretariat (comp.assessment@cgiar.org)to receive the report.

 

CA at Conferences

 

CA will organize sessions or be represented at the following events:

·          11-12th November 2005, The IWMI- Annual research Meeting in Sri Lanka

·          8 to 15th November 2005, the Ramsar Convention COP in Uganda (CA presentation on the 12th).

·          5 to 9 December 2005, The CGIAR-AGM in Morocco (posters only).

·          January 2006, International symposium on the sustainable use of groundwater  (USGWAS) of the Interacademy Panel on International Issues (some key messages of the groundwater chapter)

·          16-22 March 2006- World Water Forum – CA session in the water/food/environment beacon (Session to be confirmed).

·          20 to 26- August 2006- Stockholm Water Week in Sweden. (CA session).

 

CA chapters, ideas and messages were presented at various events to obtain feedback. 

§          On the rice chapter at the PAWEES 2005 International Conference on Management of Paddy and Water Environment for Sustainable Rice Production, 7–8 September 2005, Kyoto, Japan.

§          On irrigation, water productivity and future options at a special CA session during the 19th ICID Congress on Use of Water and Land for Food and Environmental Sustainability, 10-18 September 2005, Beijing, China. www.icid.org

 

CA Publications

 

IWMI Research Report 93, 2005 : Adoption and Impacts of Microirrigation Technologies Empirical Results from Selected Localities of Maharashtra and Gujarat States of India, Regassa E. Namara, Bhawana Upadhyay and R. K. Nagar. Download

 

CA Research Report 8, 2005: Meta-Analysis to Assess Impact of Watershed Program and People's Participation Joshi, P.K., A.K. Jha, S.P. Wani, Laxmi Joshi and R.L. Shiyan Download

 

CA Discussion Paper 1, 2005: The Effects of Agricultural Irrigation on Wetland Ecosystems in Developing Countries: A Literature Review, Hector Galbraith, Priyanie Amerasinghe and Annette Huber-Lee

 

CA publications can be downloaded from Publications, including the Blue Paper, Investing in Water for Food, Ecosystems and Livelihoods, Stockholm 2004 and the Book, Water Productivity in Agriculture: Limits and Opportunities for Improvement

About the Comprehensive Assessment

The Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture critically evaluates the benefits, costs, and impacts of the past 50 years of water development, the water management challenges communities are facing today, and solutions people have developed.  The results will enable better investment and management decisions in water and agriculture in the near future and over the next 50 years.  The assessment comprises of a broad partnership of practitioners.

To know more about the Comprehensive Assessment ;

To know more about the Synthesis phase of the CA

To share your news - Contact: comp.assessment@cgiar.org (subject-news)