Monitoring and evaluation: a management perspective; Monitoring and the management information system; Monitoring of physical and financial progress; Beneficiary contact monitoring; Follow-up diagnostic studies for monitoring; Communicating information; Evaluation: substantive focus and types; Measurement of production increases: methods and limitations; Special topics in impact evaluation.
This annual report monitors and evaluates agricultural policies in 54 countries, including the 38 OECD countries, the five non-OECD EU Member States, and 11 emerging economies.
Agricultural water management is a vital practice in ensuring reduction, and environmental protection. After decades of successfully expanding irrigation and improving productivity, farmers and managers face an emerging crisis in the form of poorly performing irrigation schemes, slow modernization, declining investment, constrained water availability, and environmental degradation. More and better investments in agricultural water are needed. In response, the World Bank, in conjunction with many partner agencies, has compiled a selection of good experiences that can guide practitioners in the design of quality investments in agricultural water. The messages of 'Shaping the Future of Water for Agriculture: A Sourcebook for Investment in Agricultural Water Management' center around the key challenges to agricultural water management, specifically: - Building policies and incentives - Designing institutional reforms - Investing in irrigation systems improvement and modernization - Investing in groundwater irrigation - Investing in drainage and water quality management - Investing in water management in rainfed agriculture - Investing in agricultural water management in multipurpose operations - Coping with extreme climatic conditions - Assessing the social, economic, and environmental impacts of agricultural water investments 'Shaping the Future of Water for Agriculture' is an important resource for those interested and engaged in development with a focus on agricultural water.
In 1997, New York City adopted a mammoth watershed agreement to protect its drinking water and avoid filtration of its large upstate surface water supply. Shortly thereafter, the NRC began an analysis of the agreement's scientific validity. The resulting book finds New York City's watershed agreement to be a good template for proactive watershed management that, if properly implemented, will maintain high water quality. However, it cautions that the agreement is not a guarantee of permanent filtration avoidance because of changing regulations, uncertainties regarding pollution sources, advances in treatment technologies, and natural variations in watershed conditions. The book recommends that New York City place its highest priority on pathogenic microorganisms in the watershed and direct its resources toward improving methods for detecting pathogens, understanding pathogen transport and fate, and demonstrating that best management practices will remove pathogens. Other recommendations, which are broadly applicable to surface water supplies across the country, target buffer zones, stormwater management, water quality monitoring, and effluent trading.
In order to confront the increasingly severe water problems faced by all parts of the country, the United States needs to make a new commitment to research on water resources. A new mechanism is needed to coordinate water research currently fragmented among nearly 20 federal agencies. Given the competition for water among farmers, communities, aquatic ecosystems and other users-as well as emerging challenges such as climate change and the threat of waterborne diseases-Confronting the Nation's Water Problems concludes that an additional $70 million in federal funding should go annually to water research. Funding should go specifically to the areas of water demand and use, water supply augmentation, and other institutional research topics. The book notes that overall federal funding for water research has been stagnant in real terms for the past 30 years and that the portion dedicated to research on water use and social science topics has declined considerably.
New York City's municipal water supply system provides about 1 billion gallons of drinking water a day to over 8.5 million people in New York City and about 1 million people living in nearby Westchester, Putnam, Ulster, and Orange counties. The combined water supply system includes 19 reservoirs and three controlled lakes with a total storage capacity of approximately 580 billion gallons. The city's Watershed Protection Program is intended to maintain and enhance the high quality of these surface water sources. Review of the New York City Watershed Protection Program assesses the efficacy and future of New York City's watershed management activities. The report identifies program areas that may require future change or action, including continued efforts to address turbidity and responding to changes in reservoir water quality as a result of climate change.
In many countries irrigated agriculture consumes a large proportion of the available water resources, often over 70% of the total. There is considerable pressure to release water for other uses and, as a sector, irrigated agriculture will have to increase the efficiency and productivity of its water use. This is particularly true for manually operated irrigation systems managed by government agencies, which provide water for a large number of users on small landholdings and represent 60% of the total irrigated area worldwide. --
Irrigation has been and will continue to be an agricultural and rural investment priority. Development of the irrigation sector faces multiple challenges, including water scarcity and degradation, competition over shared resources, and the impact of climate change. Innovations are needed to address these challenges, as well as emerging needs, and to promote productive, equitable and sustainable water management. These guidelines, produced by an inter-agency team, highlight experiences and lessons learned from global irrigation investment operations. They introduce innovative approaches, tools and references, and provide practical guidance on how to incorporate or apply them at each stage of the investment project cycle. The guidelines will be a useful resource for national and international professionals involved in irrigation investment operations.
Morocco has a diverse and varied landscape, as part of the Mediterranean basin. Nevertheless, the country's valuable biodiversity, including the Atlas Mountains and its oasis systems, is threatened. 30 000 hectares of plant cover are thus lost each year in Morocco; this has significant consequences on the various species that depend on this cover for their protection, and creates a vicious circle. Biodiversity conservation and mitigation of land degradation through adaptive management of agricultural heritage systems are a priority for the country. To face these challenges, between April 2015 and December 2019, the Global Environment Facility (GEF) with the contribution of the Government of Morocco through its multiple Action Plans; the effective involvement of the technical units of the central, regional and provincial Directorates of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Rural Development (MAPM), and Water and Forests (MAPMDREF), have implemented a project with the participation of the populations of the various communities concerned. Project activities were carried out at five oasis sites. The contribution of the project to the current political discourse on oases and the pioneering role in the use of Globally important agricultural heritage system (GIAHS) certification are important achievements. However, although the project appears innovative and timely, its relevance could have been strengthened with a more balanced intervention logic in terms of its objectives and the duration of its implementation. The project relies on GIAHS certification to achieve its objectives, but due to delays with the project start-up, and the dispersed and isolated nature of the sites, not all of the certification processes were successful despite being initiated. This created disparities in opportunities. Beyond the labelling of crops, the project aimed to promote biodiversity integration into markets, notably through organic farming. However, several activities remain incomplete, compromising the project’s effectiveness. The project suffers from poor communication, both internally and externally. As progress on the sites is uneven, the sustainability of the project interventions is also uneven; however, the promotion of oasis cultures needs to be supported and sustained.
