Vegetable irrigation toolkit

The project will develop a toolkit to support agencies funded by the United States Agency for International Development Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance to better target irrigation investments for vegetable production given the prevailing water, land, and socio-economic contexts, as well as the compounding effect of natural disasters like floods and drought. To support irrigation investments targeting vegetable production during a crisis, IWMI will develop a scalable approach and an online geospatial portal for humanitarian agencies, their local partners and donor organizations to identify suitable irrigation technologies accompanied with guidelines on best practices.

As a proof of concept, the toolkit will be developed and tested for Mali and Ethiopia in year 1 with a potential to scale across continental Africa. The project will use a combination of desk-based review, field data collection, geospatial analysis, and prediction models using multi-criteria decision-making and machine learning approaches. The outcome will be a web-based toolkit that includes investment maps and best practice guidelines to facilitate the implementation of localized investments on irrigation for vegetable production affected by humanitarian crises.