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Agro-ecology for sustainable and just groundwater governance

Agro-ecology for sustainable and just groundwater governance

Project Aim

The overarching aim of the project is to develop and consolidate new transdisciplinary and international collaborations around sustainable groundwater governance and agricultural food systems, with a focus on agroecology. The project starts from the premise that transformations to groundwater sustainability require a shift to less intensive crops and farming systems, and seeks to re-think and re-do irrigation to make it compatible with more regenerative forms of farming (called “care-ful irrigation”). The goal is to create a community of practice around ways to differently understand and combine irrigation with farming, contributing to food security, groundwater justice and sustainability through a food systems approach anchored in the principles of agroecology.

Project Objectives

  1. Develop and consolidate new transdisciplinary and international collaborations around sustainable groundwater governance and agricultural food systems including with irrigation.

  2. Undertake in-depth action-research projects grounded in everyday experiences of people engaging with agroecology in Palestine, India, Morocco, Algeria, and Uganda.

  3. Enhance processes of (South to South) co- and cross-learning within the transdisciplinary team and between teams and the communities to support the process of sustainable and equitable agricultural systems.

  4. Develop and refine methodologies to better understand the interconnectedness of groundwater/irrigation-agroecology and rainfed agriculture.

  5. Train and educate young water professionals from low- and medium-income countries in ways to recognize and support inclusive and sustainable groundwater governance and agricultural processes.

Project Outcome

The project is expected to produce several tangible outcomes, including: 4 podcasts on developed analytical methods; 5 conference presentations; 7 pamphlets documenting promising agroecological practices; at least 7 peer-reviewed open access publications; a functional multi-lingual online platform with open educational resources; 5 demonstration sites across partner countries; at least 15 MSc students trained; 3 PhD students trained; 1 Post-Doc trained; translations of 7 peer-reviewed publications into local languages; a community of practice established connecting different knowers of water and agroecology; and at least 2,000 people capacitated to participate and share practices in a South-to-South network. The long-term impact aims to be a shift towards more sustainable and just groundwater governance and agricultural food systems, with farmers and communities empowered to engage in regenerative farming practices that care for water, soils, crops, biodiversity and community wellbeing.

Team Members

  • Tavengwa Chitata (IHE Delft, Netherlands) – Project Coordinator

  • Muna Dajani (Birzeit University, Palestine) – Co-coordinator

  • Sakiya (Palestine) – NGO/CSO Partner

  • Acwadam (India) – NGO Partner

  • Soppecom (India) – NGO Partner

  • Cread (Algeria) – Government Partner

  • University of Casablanca (Morocco) – Academic Partner

  • Mountains of the Moon University (Uganda) – Academic Partner

  • JESE (Uganda) – NGO Partner

  • CIRAD (France) – Academic Partner (International Research Organisation)

  • Marcel Kuper (CIRAD, France) – Lead on Open Education Resource

  • Tibor Stigter (IHE Delft) – Groundwater Expert (GWS-SENCE project)

  • APEB (Algeria) – Associated Partner (mentioned in text)

Project Period
60 months (5 years) – Deadline for Full proposal: 6 February 2023. Specific start and end dates are not explicitly stated in the provided document.

Project Funder
Water and Development Partnership Programme (through IHE Delft, Netherlands)

Project Leadership
The project is coordinated by Tavengwa Chitata (IHE-Delft), together with Muna Dajani at Birzeit University. They will together lead and coordinate the project activities, setting up and maintaining the envisaged community of practice. Each country team will have one or two leading researchers/coordinators responsible for coordinating and planning activities in their respective countries, while also interacting with other country coordinators and the project leaders. IHE is the overall project manager.

Principal Investigator
Tavengwa Chitata