Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
120
100
Hardware
Software
Orgware
80
60
40
20
0
Figure 6.3
Distribution of hardware, software and orgware by individual sectors
for the 25 countries
priority exercises like the TNA 'top-up round' and the development of NAPAs
(UNFCCC 2009; Fida 2011).
The relative weight of hardware, software and orgware varies significantly
when technologies within the individual sectors are compared (see
Figure 6.3
). In particular, the water technologies identified were significantly
more 'hardware-intensive' (77 per cent hardware technologies) than with,
for example, the agriculture sector (36 per cent hardware technologies). This
difference is probably explained by the individual characteristics of each sector:
technologies related to water tended to be supply-focused (as with water
harvesting and storage from roofs, small dams and reservoirs to store run-
off, desalinization, and restoration/construction of wells) rather than demand/
management-focused (like water-user organizations or integrated watershed
management). By contrast, the technologies identified for agriculture tended
to be more complex and focused on resource management and integrating
aspects of both hardware and software (increasing irrigation efficiency through
improved management, developing and disseminating drought-resistant crops
and cropping systems, implementing integrated agriculture systems such as
agroforestry and mixed farming, improving extension services etc.). Only
rarely were the agriculture technologies that were identified purely hardware-
focused (e.g. investments in modern irrigation systems and terracing), and
even then some level of changed practices or knowledge transfer would
unavoidably be an integral part of the technology implementation (although
this may not necessarily be stated in the documentation).
However, the deeper reasons for this fairly even balance between hardware
and soft/orgware in the agriculture sector versus the water sector are not
entirely clear. One explanation may simply be that the nature of the water
sector is necessarily more focused on infrastructure and on ensuring the basic
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