“How long do you irrigate per day?” we asked Madame Christine, a small-holder farmer with an eye for business. “Well, I used to irrigate for up to three hours every day, but not anymore. I can now double my fields under cultivation and sell more crops while using the same amount of water!” 

We received this reaction during our field trials in Zambia for our newly developed Satellite Open-Source Irrigation Advisory (SOSIA) tool. This tool was developed within the two-stage call for innovations based on open-source geodata launched by the Netherlands Space Office (NSO), which aimed at positively impacting food security and sustainable land and water management in Africa. In response to this challenge, FutureWater and Holland Greentech developed the SOSIA tool to help small and medium farmers make informed decisions about their irrigation practices. Because – while irrigation is a crucial aspect of agriculture, over-irrigation can lead to significant environmental problems, and it reduces profits for farmers. Using less water can lead the farmer to spend less time irrigating, having a lower electricity/fuel and water bill, improving the water productivity of crops and contributing to a sustainable environment.  

What is the SOSIA tool?  

SOSIA is a state-of-the-art, open source, satellite-based tool that provides both historical and near real-time information on irrigation water requirements for smallholder farmers, calculated based on open-source geodata and specific additional farmer and crop information. The tool was developed to overcome the often-limited ground data availability for calculating crop water requirements. The only data farmers can rely on are traditional weather stations, often far away from their fields. With the SOSIA tool, the farmer receives information based on open geodata for their location, by converting the spatial data into Virtual Weather Stations (VWS)!  

Seasonal and hindcasted irrigation information

The SOSIA tool provides a farmer with irrigation advice, expressed in minutes of irrigation duration, throughout the crop season. Before the farmer plants the crop, an extension officer of Holland Greentech uses the SOSIA tool to provide the farmer with their tailor-made seasonal crop schedule, which is an overview of expected irrigation minutes for the rest of the season, calculated based on the average evapotranspiration of WaPOR of the 10 years.

Figure 1. Graphical User Interface of the SOSIA tool, hosted on the Google Earth Engine platform.

As climate is changing, the average of the last 10 years does not always give an accurate depiction of what is happening in the field. Therefore, the SOSIA tool calculates the irrigation requirements for the last week based on open source geodata. The irrigation engineer uses this functionality on a weekly basis to make use of the actual climate data and informs the farmer only if additional irrigation is required, compared to the seasonal reference schedule.

Testing the SOSIA tool with farmers

To test the tool in the context of Sub-Saharan Africa, trials were set out in both Zambia and Rwanda with farmers from the Holland Greentech client base. The farmers were quite positive about the observed impact of using the tool. Many were surprised that the advice indicated less irrigation time than they were used to. While following the advice, the farmers also kept records of the realized number of minutes of irrigation, estimation of soil moisture and signs of drought stress. No farmer recorded any drought stress on the crops. The observations of the farmers showed that the crop performance of the SOSIA irrigated trial was visually the same as fields irrigated under their normal irrigation regime (Figure 3). The farmers were enthusiastic about this water saving, mainly because of the related decrease in electricity / fuel costs. For most of the farmers involved in the field trials, SOSIA reduced irrigation water requirements while optimizing yield.

Back to Madame Christine: she indicated that she usually irrigates her lettuce fields 1 hour in the morning and 1 hour at the end of the afternoon. She was surprised that the SOSIA advise only advised her to irrigate in the range of 50-57 minutes daily. When applying the advice, she did not notice any drought stress in her lettuce crop, and the harvest was visually the same for both the demo and control field.

Figure 2. Conducting an interview with farmers in Zambia.

Benefits for extension advisors

Extension officers are the primary intended users of the SOSIA tool on a daily basis. During the piloting phase, the extension officers from Holland Greentech received the tool with great enthusiasm. They praised the user-friendliness, quality and spatial detail of the information, and efficiency compared to traditional methods to provide advisory services.

Conclusion

In conclusion, SOSIA is a valuable tool for anyone involved in irrigation management for small and medium farmers, particularly in an African context. By providing near real-time information on irrigation water requirements, it helps farmers to irrigate more efficiently and thus to realize a more sustainable use of water resources. By leveraging the power of open source geodata, costs are kept relatively low while access to a wealth of localized information is achieved. Initial results from the Zambia and Rwanda trials indicate that application of the SOSIA tool saves farmers water, electricity/fuel, time and improves the water productivity and, potentially, income!

Figure 3. Difference between the SOSIA Demo and Control plot at Sunripe Farm, Rwanda (08/11/2023).

 

Over the last decades, efficient water resources management has been an important element of EU’s water policies, a topic that is addressed with renewed attention in the revised 2021 EU Adaptation Strategy, which lists the need for a knowledge-based approach towards water-saving technologies and instruments such as efficient water resources allocation. The IPCC special report on oceans and the cryosphere in a changing climate (2019) highlights the combination of water governance and climate risks as potential reasons for tension over scarce water resources within and across borders, notably competing demands between hydropower and irrigation, in transboundary glacier- and snow-fed river basins in Central Asia.

WE-ACT’s innovative approach consists of two complementary innovation actions: the first is the development of a data chain for a reliable water information system, which in turn enables the second, namely design and roll-out of a decision support system for water allocation. The data chain for the reliable water information system consists of real-time in-situ hydrometeorological and glaciological monitoring technology, modelling of the water system (including water supply and demand modelling and water footprint assessments) and glacier mass balance, data warehouse technology and machine learning. The roll-out of the DSS for climate-risk informed water allocation consists of stakeholder and institutional analyses, water valuation methods, the setup of the water information system to allow for a user-friendly interface, development of water allocation use cases, and feedback on water use through national policy dialogues.

The work of FutureWater within the WE-ACT study will focus on estimating the water demand and water footprints of the different users and activities within the Syr Darya river basin. Therefore, the effects of water allocation on water footprints, unmet water demand and environmental flow violations will be evaluated using a set of hydrological models such as SPHY and Water Allocation models (WEAP). This will be done for both the status quo and future scenarios.

Last week, FutureWater colleagues Brecht D’Haeyer and Asher Lazarus travelled to Ankara, Turkey, for the kickoff meeting of the CREATE project (Cross Border Climate Vulnerabilities and Remote Impacts of Food Systems of the EU, Turkey and Africa Trade Climate Risk and Adaptation). There, they met with partners from the host institution, Ankara University Water Management Institute (ENSTITUSU). Representatives of various Turkish stakeholders, including food exporters and ministries of trade, forestry, and agriculture, were also in attendance.  

The CREATE project, administered by a consortium of partners from the Netherlands, Turkey, Morocco, and Egypt, is focused on conducting a cross-border climate risk assessment based on case studies of economically important crops traded between these countries. FutureWater has been active in mapping climate hotspots, identifying the key crops to be studied, and conducting preliminary analysis on climate risks affecting the production systems of these crops. Brecht and Asher presented on these activities and heard from partners Dr. Ertug Ercin of R2 Water on mapping climate risks in food systems, and Dr. E. Sena Uzunpinar of GTE Carbon on conducting life cycle assessments of carbon emissions from food systems.

The partners also discussed the next steps of the project. For FutureWater, this will involve further analysis of climate risks to key crops through the use of CMIP6 climate data and crop modelling. We are excited to continue collaborating with project partners and stakeholders to develop outputs that can be used to inform adaptation decisions at multiple scales, from on-farm management to national-level policymaking.

CREATE team during the kickoff meeting
Presentation provided by FutureWater colleague Asher Lazarus
Presentation provided by Dr. Ertug Ercin

Agriculture is a key sector of the Rwandan economy; it contributes approximately 33% to the gross domestic product and employs more than 70% of the entire labour force. Although some farmers are already using water-efficient irrigation infrastructure, too much of the available water is still lost due to unsustainable use of existing irrigation systems, and/or maximum crop yields are not achieved due to under-irrigation.

Hence, small to medium-sized food producers in Rwanda do not have sufficient access to information regarding optimal irrigation practices. To close this information gap, FutureWater has devised an innovation that can calculate a location-specific irrigation advice based on Virtual Weather Stations, expressed in an irrigation duration (“SOSIA”). The use of the outdated CROPWAT 8.0 method, and the lack of good coverage of real-time weather stations in Rwanda, means that current advice falls short. In addition, existing advisory services are often too expensive for the scale on which small to medium-sized farmers produce. There is a potential to increase the productivity of the irrigation water by up to 25%. Initially, the innovation will be disseminated via the Holland Greentech network, with a pilot in Rwanda consisting of 40 customers. Aside from further refining the SOSIA tool, upscaling strategies will be explored in this second phase to identify other intermediaries that could benefit from the SOSIA service so to realize its optimal impact.

FutureWater has found with Holland Greentech an ideal partner to roll-out this innovation due to their presence in and outside of Rwanda, where they provide irrigation kits and advice. This offers the opportunity to quickly scale-up the proposed innovation. With their expertise in agro-hydrological modeling and the African agricultural sector, FutureWater and Holland Greentech respectively have acquired ample experience to make this innovation project and its knowledge development to a success.

The tools can be accessed through online URLs for the Virtual Weather Stations and for the Irrigation Advisory Tool.

The study will focus on selection of key traded crops between the EU and Africa and their key producing regions. The tasks will include overall analysis of current practices and the background in the regions, determination of key sensitive parameters in order to select key crops and food products and map hotspot regions. In addition, project team will assess climate risks for these hotspots on key crops and food products and link these risks with the importing countries. Climate risks will be assessed by identifying the multiple climate sensitivities on the food systems in each region, assessing changes predicted by a CMIP6 (latest) climate model ensemble on key agriculture-related climate indices, and analysing impacts on production-related indices, distinguishing between rainfed and irrigated production systems. It will be focused on country specific case studies in each partner country. The impacts of climate change on trade patterns will be evaluated to assess the carbon- and water footprints and virtual water profiles of key traded commodities of these countries. At the end, the project team will focus on policy relevance and assessment of adaptation strategies and identify interventions that will be needed, at which point in the system, and from which sector (or actor) is of interest.

The outcomes of CREATE will be used to increase awareness of the risks that climate change poses to the agro-food trade and the broader economy at large. They can contribute to efforts by the governments (macro-scale), the communities (meso-scale), as well as relevant agricultural producers (micro scale) in the case study countries, by providing essential information for promoting actions towards mitigating the negative consequences of climate change on agro-food trade.

The “Integrated Strategic Water Resources Planning and Management for Rwanda” consultancy project will assess and evaluate the availability and vulnerability of the country’s water resources up to around 2050 taking climate change into consideration.

Based on this, prioritization of investment options in grey and green infrastructure will take place, in order to formulate water resources investment plans. A revised water resources policy will be prepared that is in line with water security targets and SDG 6.

In more detail, the hydrological modelling assessment will result in update water accounts per sub-catchment up to 2050. Field work for assessing groundwater resources in key areas across the country is also performed. A detailed water allocation assessment will be performed using a water resources system model (WEAP), addressing water needs for the various users up to 2050. Water allocation plans will be developed from this modelling work, incorporating stakeholder inputs.

Then, a scenario analysis is performed to evaluate the potential of additional storage in the landscape: grey (reservoirs) and green (through Nature-based Solutions). This analysis will be complemented by field work and a pre-feasibility analysis will be performed on the prioritized options. A SWOT analysis will then lead to a number of possible flagship projects which of which a concept note is prepared.
Support to the revised national policy for water resources management will also be provided by defining new policy statements and actions informed by the results from the previous tasks and developing a new water resources policy that will guide the country towards achieving the NST1 and Vision 2050 targets.

Kyrgyzstan is a highly mountainous country with relatively high precipitation in upslope areas. This, alongside the development and deforestation of basins to make way for industry and agriculture means that land has become increasingly degraded and vulnerable to erosion over recent decades. Reservoirs in the country provide access to water resources and energy in the form of hydropower, but are highly susceptible to sedimentation by eroded material. Sedimentation necessitates increased maintenance costs, reduces storage capacity and disrupts hydropower generation. It is therefore proposed that landscape scale restoration measures (e.g. tree planting) can provide key ecosystem services by reducing vulnerability to erosion and decreasing sediment delivery to reservoirs. This project therefore identifies highly degraded areas of land and determines in which of these interventions are possible. With the outcomes of this study, the World Bank – in partnership with the government of Kyrgyzstan – can prioritise investments in terms of landscape restoration efforts. The outcomes of this project will therefore reduce maintenance costs for reservoirs and contribute to the afforestation and restoration of multiple areas in Kyrgyzstan.