Consultancy: Designing and implementing an approach to support irrigation associations

This report details the methodology and outcomes of an approach developed to support irrigation associations in Mozambique as part of the project “Increasing Irrigation Water Productivity In Mozambique, Tanzania And Zimbabwe Through On-Farm Monitoring, Adaptive Management And Agricultural Platforms” (ACIAR funding). A serie of 3 workshops was held with the “25 De Setembro” cooperative (an association of producers) in Boane with the objectives to enhance social learning between participants of the workshops, to develop a better understanding of the functioning of the scheme and the horticultural value chain and to train the INIR staff on participatory tools and approach. The workshops included various participatory activities: (1) participatory mapping of the scheme (2) participatory assessment of the farmers'strategies concerning crops choices and cropping pattern (3) building of individual business plans (3) analyzing the cost of motopomp maintenance and the relationship with the financial functioning of the association. The report presents the outcomes of each activity as well as the tools used and problems encountered. It also details the possible activities for the end of the project and/or a second phase to consolidate the results. The outcomes include some learning which already led to changes of practices or internal discussions within the association. The process also increased the understanding of the project team of the functionning of the irrigation system, of the horticulture value chain in Boane where informal small scale dealers prevails and the ways farmers are being integrated in this value chain. Some aspects of the the functionning of the cooperative have also been clarified, such as irrigation practices. The work could be completed by the following activities (1) Improving the understanding the land tenure changes in the scheme (2) Testing changes in the irrigation pattern with an adequate participatory monitoring setting (3) Include a work specifically dealing with the price of fertilizer price in the next innovation platform (4) Structuring and organizing the interactions and information exchanges between the different intervenients in the area of horticulture and irrigation, for example by setting a coordination group on irrigation between donors and governement such as the Water and Sanitation (GAS group) or the agrobusiness working groups. (4) Completing the technical-economical referential for horticulture crops and organizing a discussion with farmers to compare the different crops productivity and benefit for the same surface, cycle duration, labour or financial investment (5) Developping an approach to support decision making and improve individual strategies in term of crop choice, cropping pattern and commercialization strategy to improve profits taking into account the different farmers types in an association (6) Completing the discussion concerning maintenance and association business plan (7) Developping an approach to help association members to better connect individual strategies with the collective functionning of the association. It was also recommanded to improve the monotoring and evaluation practices of the approach - including reporting of workshops - to better analysis the contribution of this kind of participatory approach to agriculture development. (Resume d'auteur)