TAAT WEC was borne out of IWMI’s commitment to ensure a water secure world by making its proven irrigation and water management technologies available on a massive scale to lift smallholder farmers across Africa out of poverty.

Crop cultivation in Africa is largely rain fed. Small-scale farmers depend on rainfall and climate variability and change lead to reduced productivity or entire crop loss. Securing water resources for agriculture is key to increasing resilience of African farmer’s. In irrigation schemes over-irrigation leads to lower crop yields, to water scarcity and reduced crop yields elsewhere, and to environmental degradation. TAAT-WEC irrigation technologies contribute to increased water productivity. We aim at optimizing the use of scarce water resources to maximize crop yields. Our interventions contribute to increased production, that contributes to increased income and food security of the rural population.

Where we work

Seven African countries are currently targeted: Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Mali, Ethiopia, Sudan, Tanzania and Malawi. In Nigeria we enable the wheat, rice and sorghum compacts. In Mali and Burkina Faso sorghum and rice farmers will benefit. In Ethiopia and Sudan, TAAT-WEC aims to increase wheat productivity and production. Finally, in Malawi and Tanzania, TAAT-WEC enables the OFSP and Maize compacts respectively.

PROJECT OVERVIEW

• VALUE CHAINS: TAAT-WEC presently enables 5 value chains (crops) namely Wheat, Rice, Sorghum, Maize and Orange Fleshed Sweet Potatoes (OFSP).
• Countries in Operation: Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Sudan, Tanzania, Malawi, Nigeria and Mali.
• Irrigation and water management technologies to scale: Engineered irrigation surfaces, efficient water lifting and application technologies, and irrigation scheduling technologies.
• Funded by Africa Development Bank (AfDB)
• Project start date: February 2018
• Estimated end date : November 2021
• taat-africa.org website

Table 1. Target countries by crop value chain

Contact

Dr Sander Zwart
IWMI,
PMB CT 112 Cantonments Accra, Ghana

Telephone: +233 302 784 752
s.zwart(at)cgiar.org