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Smallholder farmers need improved stake in Nile's development

07 November 2012, CGIAR Water and Food
URL: http://waterandfood.org/2012/11/01/smallholder-farmers-need-improved-stake-in-niles-development/

There is enough water in the Nile Basin to support development, but small farmers are at risk of being marginalised, says new book.

A new book on the Nile River basin, based on based on the results of three major research projects supported by CPWF, was published on November 5th. The Nile River Basin: Water, Agriculture, Governance and Livelihoods provides unique and up-to-date insights on agriculture, water resources, governance, poverty, productivity, upstream-downstream linkages, innovations, future plans and their implications.

The Nile provides freshwater not only for domestic and industrial use, but also for irrigated agriculture, hydropower dams and the vast fisheries resource of the lakes of Central Africa. Combining research from hydrologists, economists, agriculturalists and social scientists, the book asserts that the Nile basin is capable of providing the region's 11 countries with enough water to support a vibrant agriculture sector, but that the poor in the region who rely on the river for their food and incomes risk missing out on these benefits without effective and inclusive water management policies.

According to one of the book's co-authors, Dr. Vladimir Smakhtin of IWMI, the book gives "a comprehensive and timely overview of the development challenges facing the river. With significant new dams and development works being planned, and South Sudan joining the river basin countries, the need for solid, science-based evidence to inform policy decisions has never been greater."