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Planning ahead with FIESTA - FIESTA (Fog Interception for the Enhancement of Streamflow in Tropical Areas) Fog Delivery Model |
FRP30 |
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A new highly detailed computer model of climate, land and water interactions is now available that covers the whole of the tropics. The model, known as FIESTA, can help us to better understand the effects of land use changes and climate change on hydrological systems and poor users downstream. FIESTA can be used to help decision makers apply watershed protection in appropriate areas, build water-related infrastructure and target efforts to get water to people who need it. The model is unique because it looks at areas as small as one square kilometre. This helps planners account for the very different hydrological effects that land use or climate change can have from area to area at a very local level - boosting our ability to develop sustainable land and water strategies. |
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Firm foundations for future development - FRP FLOWS research cluster on the management of upper water catchments |
FRP31 |
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Various linked projects have been working to provide firm foundations for livelihood-improving efforts to manage forests and land in upper water catchments. Known as the FRP-FLOWS studies, the projects are providing in-country government departments in Grenada, South Africa, Tanzania, Costa Rica and India with much-needed facts and policy-guiding information. They've also been demonstrating that hydrological models like HYLUC, SWAT and ACRU really do work. Outputs from the projects include workshops for ministers and policy briefs that give decision makers key insights into payment for environmental services schemes. The projects have also developed a new dissemination tool known as EXCLAIM, as well as the so called 'Rapid Quadrant' approach - which is helping in the design of new interventions in 100 watersheds in support of two $200-million World Bank-funded watershed development projects. |
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Improving soil quality and fighting erosion in the Andes - Improved soil and water conservation practices in hillside production systems in the Andean valleys of Bolivia |
LPP15 |
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Work has been ongoing in the Andean valleys of Bolivia to find ways of combating soil erosion and falling soil fertility levels - problems which affect similar semi-arid areas throughout South America. These problems hit poor subsistence farmers particularly hard and are forcing people to migrate from the country into cities. One of the main reasons that soil fertility is degrading is the fact that fields are not being left to lie fallow for sufficiently long. Options identified to combat this include the use of grasses and leguminous cover crops like woolly pod vetch. These act as barriers, protecting bare uncropped land from erosion and also boost the fertility of the land they are grown on. |
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Multiple production systems boost pro-poor benefits from the floodplains - Better options for integrated floodplain management: uptake promtion in Bangladesh |
NRSP03 |
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An integrated management system that presents a new take on systems that provide multiple products, especially fish and crops, is improving the livelihoods of both farmers and fishers. Floodplains are under threat from overexploitation and degradation, and in the past management has often put more stress on rice production at the expense of fisheries and other natural resources on which the poor depend. The new model aims to maximize the joint benefits of crops and fish for all stakeholders. These options are used at two sites in Bangladesh, Narail and Tangail, where the community has independently adopted the ideas. The practices have spread to adjacent areas, and have since been introduced at three more sites in the country. |
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Why are research results not reaching farmers fields - Institutional scaling-up and uptake promotion of outputs from soil and water management research in east and central Africa |
NRSP15 |
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A compilation of the constraints limiting uptake and scaling-up of natural resources research results in Eastern Africa is helping policy makers get a better idea of these barriers. Awareness-raising products are explaining to researchers their role in the process. Training materials, including a learning manual, are helping build the capacity of researchers to influence institutional strategies and also design and implement plans for communication, sharing, promoting uptake, and scaling-up of their own research outputs. These materials are now used extensively throughout Eastern and Southern Africa, including in Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Comoros, D.R. Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Seychelles, South Africa, the Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. |
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Do not let the rain run off - Rainwater harvesting for upgrading and stabilising rainfed agriculture in semi-arid areas |
NRSP12 |
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New approaches to rainwater harvesting (RWH) are improving life in Tanzania's semi-arid areas. Previously, lack of awareness by planners and farmers meant RWH was not used much. A holistic system integrates interventions ranging from in situ RWH (soil and water conservation), to supplementary irrigation using water harvested from macro-catchments. The basic principle is to start by preventing runoff and promoting infiltration of the rain falling directly on the field. Another approach combines RWH with road and railway drainage infrastructure to contain flash floods while at the same time increasing water availability for agriculture and livestock. In Tanzania, use is widespread in the districts originally targeted by the project and spreading. In Rwanda, projects have been launched in several areas. |
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Rainfall modelling can predict future yields - Rainwater harvesting and management |
NRSP13 |
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PARCHED THIRST (PT) is a decision-support tool that addresses the challenges of low and unreliable crop and livestock production in semi-arid areas. Unlike most other models, PT includes the effect of the weather, water management and soil variability on cereal crop yields. Planners can therefore use it to estimate food deficits or surplus, and so anticipate their import or export strategies. The model is currently used by the Early Warning Department of the Ministry of Agriculture and by agricultural extension offices and training institutes in several areas of Tanzania. It is also used for research and teaching in Uganda, Ethiopia, South Africa, Nigeria, India, Pakistan, Greece, the UK and the USA. It is available for download from websites in Tanzania, UK and Belgium. |
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Fair shares for all from the common pool - Rainwater harvesting and management of common pool resources |
NRSP14 |
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Common pool resources (CPR) management systems must prioritise the needs of the poor. A knowledge base in Tanzania seeks to do just that by identifying aspects of institutional, regulatory and tenure systems for equitable access to runoff and related CPR in rainwater harvesting (RWH) systems. It includes information on agreed arrangements for tenure and management of CPR in target areas and guidelines for use by District Councils, wards, villages and communities in making CPR management plans. These plans therefore protect the interests of the poor while ensuring optimum and sustainable benefits to the communities using RWH systems. The knowledge base is in use by village communities, water users, District Councils and NGOs in the target areas of Tanzania. |
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Best practice bird control - Environmental impact assessment of Quelea bird control |
CPP74 |
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Plant protection teams in Sub-Saharan Africa now have best practices to guide them in controlling bird pests. The Red-Billed Quelea devastates subsistence crops of sorghum and millet, as well as of commercial wheat and rice. But current methods of dealing with the birds - spraying them with chemicals or blowing up their roosts with a mix of diesel and petrol - are harmful to the environment. Plant protection departments in ministries of agriculture in Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland and Zimbabwe now use these best practices. They assess the effects of their bird control measures and adapt them to have less harmful effects on the environment. This means lower doses of chemicals and smaller charges of explosive. |
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Boosting rice production - Strategies for participatory irrigation management and multiple water use support by interactive decision support tools |
NRSP23 |
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In India, work has been done to bridge the 'production gap' between current and potential levels of production in high-potential, irrigated rice systems. This is often the result of farmers not taking up new technologies as a result of poor communication. They need to know, for example, that using both groundwater and surface water means that they can plant and harvest early and still have time to grow a wheat crop. In India, this and other techniques were tested and then promoted using a low-cost communication strategy, including field-based demonstrations and the production of communication products in Hindi. These made clear to producers the benefits of establishing rice nurseries early. They also showcased the benefits of using the water available in rice systems for more than one thing - such as aquaculture. |
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Field Guides for better livelihoods - Participatory assessment, monitoring and evaluation of biodiversity (PAMEB) |
FRP37 |
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To help poor forest users make better use of the resources around them, researchers have worked with local people to produce field guides and create methods for identifying useful local plants. Outputs include policy briefings, a book to teach in-country partners how to produce usable easy-to-understand local field guides and a whole range of field guides suitable for use by local people. These are targeted at different countries, such as Bolivia, Brazil, Peru, Cameroon, Grenada, the West Indies and Ghana. This work has created a popular approach that local people can readily benefit from. Demand for the handbook on field guide preparation is high, and copies have been distributed to at least 15 countries. |
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Practical hints for user-friendly field guides - User-friendly field botany: Activating new ways for the flora to reduce poverty |
FRP45 |
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Foresters, botanists, herbalists, park managers and many others often have to prepare simple handouts, leaflets, guides, posters and public information materials about plants and trees. Now, a new manual gives them practical hints on how to tailor information materials to particular audiences. Plus, there's a website where they can find information to help identify flora and download copyright-free pictures. Semi-literate villagers in southwest Ghana could name 80% of the trees in the forest after just a short session with a farmer-friendly photo guide prepared with the help of the manual. Before, they could name less than 5%. In Sierra Leone and Tanzania, other guides are also already in use. |
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Teaching smallholders to combat soil erosion - Field methods to assess the extent and impact of land degradation in the context of local livelihoods |
NRSP06 |
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A systems framework forms the basis of a training tool for field professionals working with smallholder households on the impact of farming activities on soil erosion and conservation. Methods for the field assessment of both biophysical and economic aspects of erosion and conservation by developing country professionals and field staff are included. The methodology has been published and presented at meetings and training workshops. The publication was originally put on the Internet and is now available in print in English and Spanish, with an Arabic version in preparation. The technique has been widely adopted around the world. It is used in 26 countries with eight more about to take it up. This includes 12 countries of sub-Saharan Africa. |
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More informed decisions for livestock keepers in dry areas - Environmental variability and productivity of semi-arid grazing systems |
LPP23 |
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Decision-support tools have now been developed to help decision makers and livestock keepers address the difficult question of how to cope in semi-arid areas where forage levels can fall to critically low levels. Deciding how to manage livestock in these areas, and how many animals to keep, are difficult choices when rainfall cannot be predicted from one year to the next. This means that you can't be sure that there will be enough grazing for your livestock. Using tools like the SimSAGS Decision Support System will make it easier to balance the many factors that have to be taken into account when keeping livestock in areas where rainfall is very variable. |
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