Intervention Package 7

Water scarcity and droughts are increasingly prevalent in the ASEAN region due to factors like economic growth, population rise, urbanization, and climate change. This has resulted in over 60 million people facing food and water insecurity. Only 23% of cultivated land in the region is irrigated due to limited investments. To address this issue, investments in public irrigation schemes alone are insufficient. Farmer-led irrigation (FLI) is an alternative approach where farmers invest in and implement irrigation systems to enhance adaptive capacity, increase income, and promote crop diversity. Scaling up successful FLI solutions in the ASEAN region requires addressing challenges related to farmers' access to finance, markets, knowledge, and coherent policies on land and water resources.

This work aligns with ASEAN's sustainable development goals and aims to address challenges in water access for agriculture. By supporting farmers in investing in small-scale irrigation systems, it contributes to regional policies and plans for climate-smart agriculture and sustainable water resource management, enhancing food security and building resilience in food systems.

IP7 will support sustainable expansion and intensification of smallholder farming systems through the establishment of multi-purpose irrigation systems that reduce climate risks and provide additional income opportunities, especially for women, youth, the landless, and ethnic minorities by equitably benefiting from farmer-led irrigation (FLI) development.

1. Major context-specific barriers to the adoption of FLI identified to enable the catalyzing of FLI to scale

2. Geographic scale and distribution of opportunities for FLI established

3. Evidence of initial changes in policies and practices leading to enhanced FLI adoption

4. Women and marginalized farmers benefiting from FLI and related interventions

• Develop robust national and sub-national benchmarks on FLI and establish the main opportunities and constraints for expanded FLI adoption

• Identify context-specific solutions to key finance-related constraints to FLI adoption

• Develop institutional models that promote sustainable and inclusive FLI

• Establish the scale and extent of needs and opportunities for prioritized investments in FLI

• Regional cooperation and policy frameworks for strengthening the enabling environment for FLI in the ASEAN region

IP7 aims to provide reliable irrigation water access to smallholder farmers, addressing poverty traps and climate change threats. This would have positive impacts on household assets, socioeconomic indicators, and overall rural and urban socioeconomic well-being. It also supports diversified production and improves nutritional health. Enabling policies could benefit the region's smallholder farmers, including women, youth, and ethnic minorities.

Paul Pavelic
Intervention Package 7 Convener
International Water Management Institute (IWMI)

P.Pavelic@cgiar.org