Attachments
Authors
McTough, Mitchell
Minh, Thai Thi
Singh, Radhika
Schmitter, Petra S.
Context
The rising number of crises, in particular, complex crises, driven by armed conflicts, political instability and climate-induced shocks, has heightened food insecurity among vulnerable populations in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Traditional humanitarian responses to food crises provide food aid and prioritize staple crops such as maize and wheat when agricultural production is promoted. Integrating irrigated vegetable production (IVP) into crisis programs can generate income, provide essential micronutrients and diversify diets, and should therefore be included more often where feasible. There are urgent calls to action to inform policy decisions and improve IVP interventions in crisis-affected areas.
This water issue brief synthesizes findings from literature reviews on irrigated vegetable production interventions in emergencies, conducted by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) (Singh et al. n.d.) and the World Vegetable Center (Mwambi et al. n.d.).
Key messages
- An irrigated vegetable production intervention should be tailored to the crisis type—whether slow-onset, rapid-onset or complex—and its consequences, focusing on strategic priorities such as timing, scale and stakeholder coordination to meet each emergency’s unique food security, nutrition and displacement needs.
- Irrigation systems for vegetable production need to be designed with context-specific technologies, adapted to available local resources (i.e., human capacities, water quality and quantity), market access, environmental health and logistical constraints, ensuring resilience to the unique challenges posed by different emergency contexts.
- Local systems in crisis can be strengthened by IVP interventions, which help to diversify diets, improve nutrition and generate income, reducing reliance on external aid and enhancing community resilience during an emergency.
- An IVP intervention should address diverse beneficiary needs, incorporating gender equity and social inclusion for more sustainable and equitable impact outcomes.