From research outputs to development outcomes—selected stories - Water Scarcity, Livelihoods and Food Security - page 189

Enhancing water productivity and improving livelihoods through drip
irrigation and better market integration in Cambodia (SG 502)
In Cambodia, the CPWF used a small grants program to design a strategy to
enable smallholders to benefit from effective market participation. This was an
International Development Enterprises (IDE) project in partnership with the
World Vegetable Center and the International Fertilizer Development Center.
The project trained farm business advisors who encouraged farmers to
participate, guided them in their cropping decisions and connected them to
suppliers of irrigation drip-kits and fertilizer briquettes. They also helped
farmers to establish market links for their products. Farmer incomes more than
doubled as a result.
The market for vegetables is sustained by the increasing demand in urban
markets for high-value crops, so more producers do not cause a supply surplus,
which would result in decreased prices. Before the project, vegetable
production averaged only 9 percent of family income. After only one year of
the project, vegetables accounted for 19 percent. Farmers who combined drip
irrigation with deep placement of fertilizer to grow high-value crops increased
their average net income by 33 percent.
The original assumption was that poor water management was the major
constraint in commercial farming in the project area, and drip irrigation was
viewed as a solution. Researchers found, however, that under traditional
farming practices, it was not cost effective on its own and that the benefits of
improved water management could be enhanced with attention to soil fertility,
crop selection and technical advice to farmers.
The research team recruited respected farmers who were trained as farm
business advisors and served as mobile retailers of horticultural products and
services, and providers of technical advice. After the project ended, the farm
business advisors continued to supply inputs and give technical advice to
farmers, even after project stipends had been phased out. The continuing
services were funded by the margins that the advisors charged on the products
they sold.
Citations relevant to this story are: Palada et al., 2008; CPWF, 2012c.
The multiple-use water services (MUS) project (PN28)
Many water infrastructure projects are designed around a single use only, for
example, irrigation or domestic use. However, rural families usually prefer to
use water systems for multiple uses, for example irrigation and domestic use
and livestock watering. Rural livelihoods can be improved by designing water
systems from the beginning to accommodate multiple uses of water from
multiple sources.
Multiple use is not a new idea but requires a major shift in thinking among
practitioners in what are now segregated water sectors (e.g., sanitation,
drinking water, hydropower, irrigation, etc.). In addition to more time and
cost, MUS put engineers and managers into a complex new world they know