Most countries in the dry areas face increasing levels of water scarcity, and climate change and changing rainfall patterns are only going to increase this problem. This project aims to accelerate the farmers’ use of available research results and best practices for on farm water use efficiency. Examples of such would include water harvesting, supplementary irrigation, and agro-management techniques developed by farmers or generated by applied research work conducted in benchmark sites of global and regional relevance.

The project will be led by NARS through their regional Fora, and the program will be built into (and so complement) on-going collaborative applied research efforts by NARS and the CGIAR centres – particularly the CGIAR’s Challenge Programme on Water and Food.