Diversity of water sources

Irrigation water can be used from different sources. In the region, where the solution is implemented these are:

- the Syrdarya river, from where it is pumped through large pipelines;

- irrigation canals;

- wells;

- small springs, which are captured by simple means;

- rainwater collection from the roofs of houses.

 

The different water sources are related to a diversity of governance systems. The regional government owns and maintains large pipelines and canals, medium irrigation canals are in the responsibility of district water management authorities and smaller structures are cared for by the communities or by individual farmers.

 

Depending on the amounts of irrigation water available and the associated costs there are increasingly new and water efficient technologies applied for irrigation of the lands.

The diversity of sources of irrigation water is an enabling factor by itself.  Together with the availability of diverse technologies it allows for the continuation of irrigated farming under the conditions of climate changed induced increasing aridity and irrigation water shortage.

Irrigated agriculture can be effective and efficient with different sources of irrigation water. Creative innovations and the application of best practices allow for the capturing of even small sources of irrigation water and their use for the cultivation of irrigation dependent crops and thus for generation of local income. By this the resilience of land users to the impact of climate change is improved.

Partnerships and collaboration around nutritional security

Working together with other stakeholders for synergy helps in ensuring success.

Pooling human, technical and financial resources helps in achieving more for less time and money, and also helps curb replication of solutions.

All partners and the community are actively involved in the entire process thus each party takes ownership resulting to success.

  • Cordial relations among all stakeholders
  • Timely communication and coordiantion to enable participation
  • Resource allocation by each participating partner to ensure smooth operations hence no gaps/delays in service delivery

Stakeholder collaboration is essential for successful problem diagnosis, identification, planning and implemetation of any interventions in the community

Designing Community Action Plans

Community led initiatives have a higher chance of success. Working with the community for the community is one of the best ways of ensuring process and results ownership.

In our reference case of Vihiga County, after desseminating results of the baseline survey to the intevention community, with the guidance of all participating partners the locals were allowed to brainstorm and come up with possible feasible interventions.

This largely contributed to the success of the project as the participants enthusiastically made effort to ensure successful implementation and continuity. Some members voluntered their land and other resources towards the project, it beng their very own.

Partners offered some financial support to kick start the project, and also agri nutrition knowledge and skills.

Inclusivity

Collaboration

Community active participation

For an intervention to work best, let it be community owned and actioned from inception, with the guidance of other participating partners like the government and donors.

Collecting Agirnutrition and Konwledge, Attitude and Practice Data

Reliable and recent data about the study community is a key contributor to the success of an intervention.

Data provides prior knowledge of the community and possible areas of collaboration with other exisiting projects, if any exist.

In our Vihiga project, results of the baseline survey informed us of the current situation (exisiting nutritional gaps). The results were also shared with the communities and it is from these findings that the communties based their deliberations and came up with possible ways of tackling the problems found.

For scaling up of the project in Turkana and Ethiopia, we will utilize agrinutrition data collected earlier in both areas.

Data collection in the mid and end will help determine the effectiveness or otherwise of the intervention

  • Selection of a representative sample 
  • Accuracy in data collection, entry and analysis
  • Simplified dissemination of research findings to enable uderstanding by the community hence relevant intervention.
  • It is important to carry out a diagnostic study before any intervention plans in order to establish exisiting gaps
  • Our use of mixed methods in data collection helped in data verification
  • It is important to invest in the whole research process-data collection, cleaning and analysis for accurate representative results.
Institutional anchoring and broad-scaling

Through the elaboration of an EbA Action Program , the EbA approach was institutionally anchored in the protected area “Cananéia-Iguape-Peruíbe”. In addition, the methodological approach will be applied in eleven other protected areas in four federal states of the country through strategic partnerships with the Brazilian Environmental Ministry (MMA), the Brazilian Environmental Agenday (ICMBio) and others. The aspiration is that in the future, all protected area management plans consider EbA as a strategic response to climate change.

  • Agreements with and support from staff responsible for the elaboration and approval of management plans at central level of the protected area authority.
  • Partnerships with other projects and financiers are an important catalyst and trigger point for replication, up- and broad-scaling.
  • It requires time as well as financial and personal resources to develop ready-to-use methodological approaches and to advocate for their dissemination and integration.
  • There is a need to balance generalizable and context-specific issues.
Micro-zoning of the selected plot according to the soil type, the topography and the identification of adapted local plant and tree species

Community members and experts developed a topographic map of the selected plot showing the different soil types and adapted local plant and tree species. Two main soil types have been identified:

  • The soils of the mountainsides: stony surfaces; horizon 1 (0 to 20 cm) is silty sandy with a mixture of stony grains; horizon 2 (20 to 40 cm) is dominated by large stones and a small proportion of soil and horizon 3: (40 to more) was not accessible. For this soil type, the appropriate species are: Acacia (Acacia nilotica, Acacia Sieberiana, Acacia seyal), Neem Azadirachta indica, Anogeissus leiocarpus, Jujube (Ziziphus mauritiana), River Red Gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis).
  • The site bed is dominated by vertisols (i.e. soils with a high content of expansive clay minerals) with local withdrawal slots: horizon 1 (0 to 40 cm) composed of silt and clay and horizon 2 (40 to more) a mixture of silt, clay and stony grains. Suitable species include: Khaya (Khaya senegalensis), Cassia (Cassia siamea), African black plum (Vitex doniana), River Red Gum (Eucalyptus camadulensis), Winter thorn (Faidherbia albida), Cashew (Anacardium occidentale) and other fruit trees.

 

Depending on these different soil types, a mini-zoning allowed to delimit 11 blocks occupied by eight selected species.

  • Full involvement of the designated local facilitators who are willing to follow-up on the activities on a daily basis
  • Participatory selection of the plant and tree species to guarantee a useful reforestation
  • Adoption of the micro-zoning approach

It is pivotal to take into account the physical characteristics of the plot for the success of the initiative including soil characteristics and topography by involving local experts. This allows to identify solutions for restoration that are sustainable and profitable in the short, medium and long term.

Establishing a value chain for remote smallholder farmers

Productive hilly land, surrounded by green forests (habitat of wild animals) and interested farmers to shift to commercial organic farming households are a boon to our initiative. The farming of the regular crops, fruits and vegetables such as maize, millet, buckwheat, cauliflower, tomato, turmeric, jackfruit, mango, etc. will be promoted to grow in volume. Also, some high value crops such as kiwi, avocado, chia seed and moringa shall be introduced in the second phase. These products will be directly linked to the closest city areas through farmers markets once and/or twice a week. Consequently, the direct connection of local farmers’ organic produces to the consumers via farmers markets will establish trust and a positive relationship.

The support  provided by IFOAM - Organics International and Rare in the form of hands-on capacity trainings has motivated the community and increased interest in commercial organic farming. Linking these de facto organic farmers to markets will enable the shift into commercial organic farming, which will promote their income generation along with conserving their ecology.

I see huge zeal in the community to uplift their status through commercial organic farming more along with conserving the biodiversity. Establishing personal connections and enabling interpersonal communication about organic through a variety of engaging tools such as songs, billboards, plays and religious texts has helped inspire the community.

Special Loan Products for Machiya Conservation

Since 2010, public interest in machiya conservation has surged and banks have begun offering tailored restoration loans for these bygone architectural artifacts. Recently, the Kyoto Center for Community Collaboration created and issued “Machiya Karte”s, imitating the clinical records used in medical care. By documenting the uniqueness and value of each machiya building in a tangible form, the liquidity of machiya as a tradable good increased significantly. As a result, as of March 2018, three local banks have started special loan products for machiya renovation or utilization. For example, Kyoto Credit Bank provides both consumer (accommodation) loans and corporate loans. The former offers 1-100 million JPY at the interest rate of 1.8-2.0%, as opposed to the normal housing loan requiring 2.675%. The latter offers 30 or 50 million JPY at the interest rate of 1.2-2.3%, depending on the period and whether collateral is provided. From 2011 to 2017, the consumer loan product won 123 contracts, and the corporate loan product won 7 contracts.

  • The Machiya-Karte project documented the uniqueness and value of each machiya building in a tangible form

These loans are made possible by a public-private cooperative agency that certifies structures as legitimate machiya, provides banks with estimates of the necessary restoration work, and subsidizes each restoration project. These loan products, combined with other initiatives by Kyoto City and its partners, are expected to further boost the preservation, restoration, and utilization of machiya.

Knowledge of activities in the area

It is very important to identify the activities likely to affect the conservation of the species to be protected. Here, we have identified several sources of nuisance. This text deals only with the nuisance caused by jet-skiing. To confirm the nuisance caused by these machines in our area, we recorded the noise propagated during normal use. Finally, the bibliography enabled us to confirm the nuisance caused.

Knowledge of measurement/mapping activities and resources.

Confirmation that jet-skiing is harmful to the conservation of a coastal group of bottlenose dolphins.

Establishment and Development Support of Village Level Organizations.

From the execution of the participatory mapping and creation of medium term planning, it’s required to have short term follow up action plans such as:


1. Making the union of farmers, village owned company (Pondok Lada), research group is legally recognized both locally and nationally,

2. Support annual strategies that based on medium term planning, such as:

a. Farmers union is to increase the annual harvest volume, not expand their agriculture in water source protection area, using organic pesticide and fertilizer, grading pepper berries to be sold to the company, Pondok Lada.

b. The company buy graded pepper berries with the fair price that is disscussion with farmers union, producing post harvest product as a instant product, gradually transform to eco-packaging to reduce the impact of plastic waste.

c. Research group to teach how to grade pepper with global standard, teaching how to integrate each type of farming (pepper, fishery) by supplying each other nutrition.

 

This annual planning that is arranged by village has to be synchronized to district and national medium and long term planning in order to have better support from the government.

  • Legalization of formed groups (the company, research groups) regionally to nationally.
  • Creating key persons and support system for regeneration of those groups.
  • Synchronization of annual strategies of those groups to village administration medium term planning, medium and long term regional to national government level planning with collaborations with other local movements, academics, start-up companies, NGOs, etc.
  • Coordination and data sharing with related government institutions to gain support from the planning that is arranged by village.
  • Understand how the line of coordination and legal system works in different regions
  • Collected of various policies, (i.e long term agricultural development plan from Ministry of Agriculture, long term agricultural and energy development plant from province level) to be synchronized to village development plan from each level of government, i.e (National or Regional) Planning and Development Ministry, Village Empowernment Ministry (regional), Agriculture Ministry.
  • Know the key person of each sector from the government, NGOs, academics, i.e. head of directorate of development rural area in National or Regional) Planning and Development Ministry.