The Changing Faces of Farmer-Led Irrigation: Lessons from Dynamic Irrigation Trajectories in Kenya and Zimbabwe

Farmer-led irrigation is valued for its resilience and ability to cope with shocks and benefit from opportunities. Yet, typologies of farmer-led irrigation are mostly static categorisations without analysing farmers’ decision-making over time, and without studying ‘failed’ cases. We therefore analysed temporal changes in farmers’ irrigation...

Security in flexibility: Accessing land and water for irrigation in Kenya's changing rural environment

In the semi-arid lands of southern Kenya, a dynamic process of farmer-led irrigation has developed over the past two decades. It is characterised by short-term agreements to access land and water. Resident and migrant farmers, capital providers and local landowners have engaged in diverse partnerships to benefit from water and land along the...

Irrigation on the move: How transient farming partnerships facilitate the expansion of smallholder irrigation along ephemeral rivers in dryland areas of Kenya

Irrigation is commonly viewed as an activity fixed in time and place requiring permanent infrastructure. However, smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa engage in irrigation in diverse locations under different organizational modalities. This research analyses a flexible and dynamic form of irrigation driven by unique partnerships between...

Using nature-based water storage for smallholder irrigated agriculture in African drylands: Lessons from frugal innovation pilots in Mozambique and Zimbabwe

Alluvial aquifers in seasonal rivers are a yet underutilised resource in many (semi-)arid regions of Africa. These so-called sand river aquifers provide nature-based water storage within easy reach because they are shallow. They form a significant potential renewable source of water for irrigation development. Innovative approaches and solutions...