Innovating in a dynamic technical context - Water Scarcity, Livelihoods and Food Security - page 118

in polders in coastal Bangladesh (PN10, G2, G3) (Sharifullah et al., 2008;
Tuong and Hoanh, 2009; Humphreys, 2012).
Land and water in landscapes
Another group of projects worked at the whole farm to landscape level. They
focused on rainwater harvesting (9) or improved water management (10).
Some involved conservation agriculture in rainfed systems (7) including the
innovative slash and mulch (QSMAS) to replace slash and burn systems on
hillsides. These were complemented by others focused on conserving land and
water (11). Also working at a landscape level were projects on land- and water-
use zoning (17), rehabilitating rangeland (5) and wetlands management (3).
Projects using rainwater harvesting often overlapped with the variety, fertilizer,
water, markets group described above.
Water storage, irrigation and drainage
Projects worked on the design and management of small reservoirs (10) or other
water storage (7), such as inside polders that are surrounded by saltwater in the
dry season. A related topic was sluice-gate management for water control and
drainage (3). There were projects on MUSs, which use water better (6) or
develop under-utilized groundwater resources (3). There were projects that
focused on irrigation methodology including supplementary irrigation and the
use of alluvial aquifers (15), two of which studied drip irrigation.
Dams, reservoirs and access
Finally, there were projects that studied reform of policy on water access and
how it affected farm-level water use (12), basin-level changes in blue water
allocation (14) and large dam design and management (4). Of the latter, some
focused on individual reservoirs while others considered cascades of reservoirs
in a river basin.
Key lessons
The experience of the CPWF in research on technologies leads us to several
conclusions.
In R4D, the role of research on technical innovation is to generate credible
and relevant knowledge. Such knowledge is used to inform engagement,
dialogue and negotiation and thereby translate research outputs into behavioral
outcomes. Outputs consist of knowledge that contributes to understanding a
development challenge better, and informs strategies designed to address that
challenge. Both understanding and strategies aim to support decision-making
and negotiation. Outcomes are when people decide to modify what they do or
how they do it.