Agricultural and Rural Development Notes
59 items available
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This series on commodity risk management aims to disseminate the results of World Bank research that describes the feasibility of developing countries’ ability to utilize market-based tools to mitigate risks associated with commodity price volatility and weather.
Items in this collection
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Publication
Investing In the Reuse of Treated Wastewater
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2006-06)Of the projected 1 billion growth in global population by 2015, 88 percent will take place in cities, nearly all of it in developing countries. Investments in urban water supply and sewerage coverage are rising. However, adequate treatment for agricultural reuse with acceptable risk mitigation for human health and the environment will require further investment. While this Investment Note addresses reuse after treatment, it is critical to ensure that investments in treatment appropriate for reuse schemes will be made. Urban wastewater is well suited to agricultural reuse and landscaping because of the reliability of supply, proximity to urban markets, and its nutrient content. To have an impact on scarcity, reuse of wastewater must substitute for, not add to, existing uses of higher-quality water. Moreover, reuse of treated wastewater often disproportionately benefits the poor. It must be combined with strategies to prevent or mitigate health risks from pathogens, heavy metals, pesticides, and endocrine disrupters, and environmental damage from heavy metals and salinity. Long-term institutional coordination among urban, agricultural, and environmental authorities and end users is a requirement for water reuse investments to pay off. This note outlines technological and management interventions suitable for World Bank lending. -
Publication
Investing in Smallholder Irrigation
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2006-06)Smallholder irrigated horticulture has proven to be a viable and attractive option for poor farmers in developing countries. This paper relates two important lessons learned: low-cost productive technologies must be available to smallholders in terms of both location and price and must correspond to their needs, and the importance of a market-led approach for financing technology acquisition. The paper concludes with the following recommendations: use privately owned technologies to avoid collective action problems and reliance on government assistance -- this increases the likelihood that irrigation assets will be maintained; consider simple technologies such as treadle pumps and drip irrigation kits -- these self-select for poor households; ensure that a minimum set of resource and market conditions are satisfied before promoting irrigation; develop supply chains that are dominated by private entrepreneurs such as pump manufacturers and repair shops; rethink the definition of smallholder-irrigated agriculture in view of market gardening -- many farmers, particularly the poorest, irrigate plots smaller than one-tenth of a hectare; recognize that rapid introduction of mechanized technologies can easily overwhelm a poor smallholder in terms of capacity -- scaling up to mechanized pumps has been demonstrated successfully but may take time; and make sure there are markets for the outputs, or help create them, to ensure that increased production is profitable. -
Publication
Shaping the Future of Water for Agriculture : Designing and Implementing Quality Investments in Agricultural Water Management
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2006-02)This Note is based on the report, "Shaping the Future of Water for Agriculture: A Sourcebook for Investment in Agricultural Water Management," which presents a range of solutions and good practices from World Bank and worldwide experience are documented to meet the challenges of agricultural water management. This Note discusses the specific recommendations which were presented to help practitioners design and implement quality investments in agricultural water management. -
Publication
Conjunctive Use of Groundwater and Surface Water
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2006-02)Conjunctive water use refers to simultaneous use of surface water and groundwater to meet crop demand. This Note concludes that to optimize conjunctive use of water, the best way forward is to concentrate on capacity building of irrigation system managers to improve system management and reshape hydraulic infrastructure of large and small-surface systems. To sustain groundwater use in tube well-irrigated areas, enhancing recharge from precipitation and surface water imports is necessary. None of these improvements can be made without the proper institutional and organizational development, including investment in the capacities of local governments to lead on participatory groundwater management and integrated water resources management. -
Publication
Investing in Drought Preparedness
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2006-02)Drought is a normal part of climate for virtually every country. This paper notes that in response, a risk-based management approach is more cost effective because it emphasizes improved monitoring and early warning systems; development of strong decision-support systems; identification and implementation of mitigation actions; education and training of policy makers, natural resources managers, and the public; and drought mitigation plans that reduce the most serious impacts. The paper concludes with general recommendations that would benefit all sectors: improving the reliability of seasonal climate forecasts and increasing their use could improve decision making for water management; establishing an automated weather station network could provide end users with near-real time data to improve decision-making; altering operating procedures for water reservoir management and augmenting water storage capacity of surface and subsurface systems could improve drought coping capacity; improving information delivery systems and providing technical assistance could improve decision making by government officials, agricultural producers, and water managers during droughts and help create the necessary infrastructure; and improving water conservation practices for domestic and agricultural sectors during drought and non-drought periods and monitoring the effects of drought on water quality for both surface and groundwater supplies would help to mitigate risks overall. -
Publication
Water Management and Agricultural Trade
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2006-02)Improved water management practices and trade in "virtual water" can help alleviate water scarcity, release water for more efficient uses, increase productivity, and ultimately reduce food prices for consumers. Investments in these areas can therefore drive growth and poverty reduction, both directly and indirectly- because they may reduce food costs and supply uncertainties, improve the diets of the rural and urban poor, raise and diversify incomes, provide employment and entrepreneurial opportunities both inside and outside cities, and induce smallholder farmers' productivity gains, which would increase their opportunities for wealth creation and better integrate them into local, national, and international markets. -
Publication
Exploring Adaptation to Climate Change in Agriculture : The Potential of Cross-Sectional Analysis
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2005-07)Scientists are confident of a link between greenhouse gas emissions, the increasing concentration of those gases in the atmosphere, and climate change. However, the final impacts from climate change are difficult to estimate, since we have no direct experience with new climates. Past climate change has been small and slow, making the impacts hard to discern. Further, technological changes have obscured signals from historic climate changes. Despite these difficulties, the impact literature has made many strides toward understanding and quantifying climatic impacts.