Messages and meaning - Water Scarcity, Livelihoods and Food Security - page 210

Sustainable intensification relies on market incentives
and often on water infrastructure
Innovative water management provides many opportunities to raise produc-
tivity equitably, improve livelihoods and reduce poverty. Water managers and
users are more likely to innovate when they benefit from doing so.
Markets provide incentives for investments in production and resource
management
Basin teams found that intensified farm systems deliver improved livelihoods in
the near term and were often the foundation for spontaneous innovation and
change. Intensification driven by market-value chains changes farm system
management. In turn the intensification can drive further adjustments in land
and water management.
Some basin teams found huge potential for intensification in irrigated
systems: “With advances in crop and aquaculture technologies and available
water resources, there is tremendous potential to improve food security and
[livelihoods. The technologies include] improved species, varieties, cropping
system intensification and diversification on saline soils in coastal zones”
(Ganges).
Other basin teams found the same potential in rainfed systems, calling for, “a
stronger focus on improving markets, value chains and multi-stakeholder
institutions to enhance the benefits and sustainability of rainwater management
investments.” “Strong value chains in which producers receive a fair share of
benefits through appropriate institutions will lead to higher incomes and
sustainability of rainwater management interventions” (Nile).
Improved livelihoods through intensification often depend on water
infrastructure
In another message we wrote “Water is not scarce, it is the way it is managed.”
An important part of water management is the design, maintenance, man-
agement and governance of water infrastructure.
Summarizing experience from the coastal Ganges, the basin team found that
improved livelihoods can emerge from intensification. “Achieving large-scale
adoption of innovative production systems and unlocking the potential of
water resources requires investment in water management infrastructure.” They
found that, “Improving drainage is the key intervention and the entry point for
cropping intensification and diversification.” In the coastal Ganges, water
infrastructure includes rural infrastructure not originally intended for water
control: “Rural structures (roads, embankments, and culverts) must be con-
sidered an integral part of the water management infrastructures. They can
effectively form the boundaries of sub-hydrological units, and also units of
community water management.”