Sustainable Irrigation Requires a Water-Energy-Food-Environment Nexus Approach

Irrigation is increasingly being sought as a solution to improve food and water security in the face of polycrises. While irrigation development has traditionally focused on public, large-scale, surface-level and reservoir-fed systems, private, small-scale investments in groundwater-fed irrigation have grown in importance over the last several decades. In South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, these smallholder systems now account for most of the new increases in irrigated area. The key challenges that irrigation faces relate to sustainability and equity. This session will discuss how using the WEFE Nexus approach, which takes water, energy, food and ecosystem-related factors into account, can address key sustainability and equity challenges.

The GFFA expert panel will include a mix of government, private-sector, research-oriented and other partner participants, who will present case studies and insights on how to support the rapidly needed increases in small-scale irrigation through improved technologies, institutions, and systemic analyses.

The session will focus on the following major questions:

• What is the WEFE Nexus approach and how does it relate to small-scale irrigation?
•    Are there examples from Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia where the WEFE Nexus approach was applied successfully for small-scale irrigation?
• What key investments, policies and institutions can support sustainable irrigation in the WEFE Nexus context?