Water Harvesting for Rainfed Africa: investing in dryland agriculture for growth and resilience

WAHARA will take a transdisciplinary approach to develop innovative, locally adapted water harvesting solutions with wider relevance for rainfed Africa. Water harvesting technologies play a key role in bringing about an urgently needed increase in agricultural productivity, and to improve food and water security in rural areas. Water harvesting technologies enhance water buffering capacity, contributing to the resilience of African drylands to climate variability and climate change, as well as to socio-economic changes such as population growth and urbanisation. To ensure the continental relevance of project results, research will concentrate on four geographically dispersed study sites in Tunisia, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia and Zambia, covering diverse socio-economic conditions and a range from arid to sub-humid climates. The project emphasizes: i) participatory technology design, i.e. selecting and adapting technologies that have synergies with existing farming systems and that are preferred by local stakeholders, yet tap from a global repertoire of innovative options; ii) sustainable impact, i.e. technologies that combine multiple uses of water, green and blue water management, and integrated water and nutrient management. Using models, water harvesting systems will be designed for maximum impact without compromising downstream water-users, contributing to sustainable regional development; iii) integration and adaptability, i.e. paying attention to the generic lessons to be learned from local experiences, and developing guidelines on how technologies can be adapted to different conditions; and iv) learning and action, i.e. a strategy will be developed to enable learning and action from successes achieved locally: a. within a region, to upscale from water harvesting technologies to water harvesting systems, and b. across regions, promoting knowledge exchange at continental scale.