Farmer‐led irrigation development in sub‐Saharan Africa

Abstract

Farmer‐led irrigation development (FLID) is a process where individual farmers play a driving role in configuring agricultural technology practices, crop‐specific market linkages, land and water governance arrangements, and informal and formal value chain actor networks. Multilateral donors are increasingly funding FLID as a development strategy in sub‐Saharan Africa to expand irrigation coverage, recognizing co‐benefits such as enhanced climate resilience, improved household food insecurity, and alleviated rural poverty. This review suggests that FLID can be understood as a farmer response to the shortcomings of neoliberal structural adjustment and cost recovery policies. Simultaneously, multilateral donor‐funded FLID projects advance Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) policy tools, exposing a policy paradox. Following multilateral and bilateral donor investments in FLID over 30 years, the review establishes how farmers initiated their own irrigation investments and the subsequent “scale‐up” of FLID by multilateral finance institutions. The stances of multilateral donors (e.g., World Bank) and multilateral entities (e.g., FAO) toward water governance for FLID present a contradictory picture. The review demonstrates how multilateral donors have transformed FLID into distinct agribusiness project models through Water‐Energy‐Food nexus and climate frameworks, with attention to farmers' collective action strategies. However, collective action as an avenue for the expansion of FLID does not automatically guarantee a socially inclusive and environmentally sustainable process across project models. Future research should focus on examining socioeconomic impacts on farmers participating in a project intervention, as well as farmers and irrigated value chain actors in proximal areas, to work toward effective and equitable water governance for FLID.