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Intensification of agricultural production through upscaling of innovative and adapted irrigation practices and technologies (IRRINN)

Last update: 1 March 2023

One of the nine DeSIRA projects involved in DISSEM-INN, the IRRINN project focuses on irrigation.

The DeSIRA initiative
Launched at the One Planet Summit in Paris in 2017, the “Development Smart Innovation through Research in Agriculture (DeSIRA)” initiative is supported by European Commission’s Directorate for International Partnerships (DG INTPA). By funding more than sixty projects worldwide, this program aims to promote innovation in agriculture and transformation of partner countries’ agri-food systems to make them more resilient to the effects of climate change. Through the original concept of “action-research” for a “development smart innovation”, it seeks to promote a science in partnership that meet development challenges.

Description

The aim of the IRRINN project is to develop a clear, simple and cost-effective platform to support innovation in small scale irrigation. The platform will include technical, organisational and financial components and will be tested hands-on with farmers in real-life situations. To improve the adaptation and adoption of new technologies, it is important to work with farmers and the different stakeholders in the innovation support system (government agents, research centres, private firms, local artisans and NGOs involved in the development of irrigation technologies, such as small solar pumps or drip irrigation). This co-construction of innovation will make it possible to identify the key constraints to adoption and to test improved and more appropriate technologies for different conditions, thus fostering the upscaling of innovations.

More specifically, the project entails the following activities:

  • creation of spaces for dialogue and reflection at field site level, enabling local stakeholders to be involved in the definition, testing and evaluation of appropriate solutions;
  • co-design of irrigation solutions adapted to the different contexts;
  • mobilization and consolidation of the knowledge management framework (platform);
  • construction of impact pathways adapted to the national context, based on feedback regarding the changes and effects produced by the project at several levels.

Country concerned

Burkina Faso

Length

2021 - 2025

Actors involved

  • Coordinator: CIRAD 
  • Partners: 2IE; CSIC; APESI; INERA; PRACTICA; ZALF
  • Funding: DeSIRA initiative (DG INTPA/UE)

Last update: 1 March 2023