Basin Focal Projects

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The Basin Focal Projects (BFPs) are a set of CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food projects aimed at identifying and catalyzing the implementation of strategic interventions to enhance human and ecological well-being through increases in river basin and local level water productivity. [1] [2]

CGIAR organization

CGIAR is a global partnership that unites international organizations engaged in research for a food-secured future. CGIAR research is dedicated to reducing rural poverty, increasing food security, improving human health and nutrition, and ensuring sustainable management of natural resources. It is carried out by 15 centers that are members of the CGIAR Consortium, in close collaboration with hundreds of partners, including national and regional research institutes, civil society organizations, academia, development organizations, and the private sector. It does this through a network of 15 research centers known as the CGIAR Consortium of International Agricultural Research Centers. These research centers are spread around the globe, with most centers located in the Global South, at Vavilov Centers of agricultural crop genetic diversity. CGIAR research centers are generally run in partnership with other organizations, including national and regional agricultural research institutes, civil society organizations, academia, and the private sector.

Contents

Overview

The Projects provide strategic research that links project and basin activities with the global demand for improved agricultural water productivity. They do this by analyzing conditions in ten river basins under six work packages.

Mekong river in Southeast Asia

The Mekong is a trans-boundary river in Southeast Asia. It is the world's twelfth longest river and the seventh longest in Asia. Its estimated length is 4,350 km (2,703 mi), and it drains an area of 795,000 km2 (307,000 sq mi), discharging 475 km3 (114 cu mi) of water annually. From the Tibetan Plateau the river runs through China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. The extreme seasonal variations in flow and the presence of rapids and waterfalls in the Mekong make navigation difficult. Even so, the river is a major trade route between western China and Southeast Asia.

Volta River river in Ghana

The Volta River is the main river system in the West African country of Ghana. It flows into Ghana from Bobo-Dioulasso highlands of Burkina Faso. The main part of the river are the Black Volta, the White Volta, and the Red Volta. In the northwest, the Black Volta forms the international boundaries between the Ivory Coast, Ghana, and Burkina Faso. The Volta flows southward along Akwapim-Togoland highlands, and it empties into the Atlantic Ocean at the Gulf of Guinea at Ada. It has a smaller tributary river, the Oti, which enters Ghana from Togo in the east. The Volta River has been dammed at Akosombo for the purpose of generating hydroelectricity. The reservoir named Lake Volta stretches from Akosombo in the south to the northern part of the country, thus being one of the largest man-made reservoirs in the world.

Ganges River in Asia

The Ganges, or Ganga, is a trans-boundary river of Asia which flows through India and Bangladesh. The 2,525 km (1,569 mi) river rises in the western Himalayas in the Indian state of Uttarakhand, and flows south and east through the Gangetic Plain of India and Bangladesh, eventually emptying into the Bay of Bengal.

Research projects are led by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Australia (CSIRO), University of California, Davis (UC-Davis), Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD), International Water Management Institute (IWMI), Agricultural Research Council of South Africa (ARC) and are supported by FANRPAN, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and King's College London (KCL).

University of California, Davis University in Davis

The University of California, Davis, is a public research university and land-grant university adjacent to Davis, California. It is part of the University of California system and has the third-largest enrollment in the system after UCLA and UC Berkeley. The institution was founded as a branch in 1905 and became its own separate entity in 1959. It has been labeled one of the "Public Ivies", a publicly funded university considered to provide a quality of education comparable to those of the Ivy League.

The French Research Institute for Development is a French science and technology establishment under the joint supervision of the French Ministries of Higher Education and Research and Foreign Affairs. It operates internationally from its headquarters in Marseille, and two metropolitan centres of Montpellier and Bondy.

International Water Management Institute organization

The International Water Management Institute (IWMI) is a non-profit research organisation with headquarters in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and offices across Africa and Asia. Research at the Institute focuses on improving how water and land resources are managed, with the aim of underpinning food security and reducing poverty while safeguarding vital environmental processes.

Methodology

BFP analyses are grouped into six work packages:

Problems of water, food and poverty are explored by asking the following kinds of questions:

Water scarcity Lack of fresh water resources to meet water demand

Water scarcity is the lack of fresh water resources to meet water demand. It affects every continent and was listed in 2019 by the World Economic Forum as one of the largest global risks in terms of potential impact over the next decade. It is manifested by partial or no satisfaction of expressed demand, economic competition for water quantity or quality, disputes between users, irreversible depletion of groundwater, and negative impacts on the environment. Two-thirds of the global population live under conditions of severe water scarcity at least 1 month of the year. Half a billion people in the world face severe water scarcity all year round. Half of the world’s largest cities experience water scarcity.

Related Research Articles

Niger River River in West Africa

The Niger River is the principal river of West Africa, extending about 4,180 km (2,600 mi). Its drainage basin is 2,117,700 km2 (817,600 sq mi) in area. Its source is in the Guinea Highlands in southeastern Guinea. It runs in a crescent through Mali, Niger, on the border with Benin and then through Nigeria, discharging through a massive delta, known as the Niger Delta or the Oil Rivers, into the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean. The Niger is the third-longest river in Africa, exceeded only by the Nile and the Congo River. Its main tributary is the Benue River.

WorldFish is an international, nonprofit research organization with headquarters in Penang, Malaysia, and offices in Asia, Africa, and the Pacific. WorldFish’s mission is to harness the potential of fisheries and aquaculture to reduce poverty and hunger in developing countries.

Bani River river in Mali

The Bani River is the principal tributary of the Niger River in Mali. The river is formed from the confluence of the Baoulé and Bagoé rivers some 160 km (99 mi) east of Bamako and it merges with the Niger near Mopti. Its length is about 1,100 km (680 mi).

Center for International Forestry Research nonprofit organization promoting environmental conservation and equality

The Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) is a non-profit scientific research organization that conducts research on the use and management of forests with a focus on tropical forests in developing countries. CIFOR is the forestry research center of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), a network of 15 research centers around the world that focus on agricultural research for sustainable development, working closely with governments and other partners to help develop evidence-based solutions to problems related to sustainable agriculture and natural resource management.

National Institute of Oceanography, India facility in Panaji, India

The National Institute of Oceanography, founded on 1 January 1966 as one of 37 constituent laboratories of the CSIR, is an autonomous research organization in India to undertake scientific research and studies of special oceanographic features of the Northern Indian Ocean. Headquartered in Goa, it has regional centres in Kochi, Mumbai and Vizag.

International Food Policy Research Institute organization

The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) is an international agricultural research center founded in the early 1970s to improve the understanding of national agricultural and food policies to promote the adoption of innovations in agricultural technology. Additionally, IFPRI was meant to shed more light on the role of agricultural and rural development in the broader development pathway of a country. The mission of IFPRI is to provide research-based policy solutions that sustainably reduce poverty and end hunger and malnutrition.

The Collaborative Crop Research Program (CCRP) funds participatory, collaborative research on agroecological intensification (AEI). Funded projects typically link international, national, and local organizations with communities of smallholder farmers, researchers, development professionals, and other parties. Projects work together as part of a Community of Practice to generate technical and social innovations to improve nutrition, livelihoods, and productivity for farming communities in Africa and South America. Large-scale impact is realized when new ideas, technologies, or processes are adapted, when insights from research catalyze change in policy and practice, and when innovation inspires further success. The program is under the direction of Rebecca J. Nelson of Cornell University and Jane Maland Cady of the McKnight Foundation.

The Millennium Villages Project is/was a demonstration project of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, the United Nations Development Programme, and Millennium Promise aimed at proving that its integrated approach to rural development can be used to achieve the Millennium Development Goals—eight globally endorsed targets that address the problems of poverty, health, gender equality, and disease—by 2015.

The net-map toolbox is a social network analysis tool that uses interviews and mapping to help people understand, visualize, discuss, and improve situations in which many different actors influence outcomes. Social network analysis is a research approach used by scholars such as S.D. Berkowitz, Stephen Borgatti, Ronald Burt, Linton Freeman, Mark Granovetter, Nicholas Mullins, Anatol Rapoport, Stanley Wasserman, Barry Wellman, and Harrison White to better understand the implications of the position of individual actors in a social structure.

The Ader Doutchi Maggia Rural Development Project (PDR-ADM), better known as Keita Project, is a development project in Keita Department in central Niger. The Project has taken place in four phases, the first starting in 1983 and the most recent beginning in 2003. It was run initially by the Italian government's Italian Development and Cooperation Bureau, as part of its 'Italian Initiative for the Sahel', with significant help from the United Nations. The fourth phase is being run by the UNDP. As of September 2009, the Project has cost approximately US$88 million, with the majority of funding coming from the Italian government.

WISDOM Project

The WISDOM Project is a bilateral research project between Germany and Vietnam, focusing on the creation of a Water related Information System for the Mekong Delta. Initiated by the Vietnamese and the German Government it was started in the year 2007, and is planned to continue until the year 2013. Water-related Information System for the sustainable Development of the Mekong Delta in Vietnam

Hydropower in the Mekong River Basin

The estimated hydropower potential of the lower Mekong Basin is 30,000 MW, while that of the upper Mekong Basin is 28,930 MW. In the lower Mekong, more than 3,235 MW has been realized via facilities built largely over the past ten years, while projects under construction will represent an additional 3,209 MW. An additional 134 projects are planned for the lower Mekong, which will maximize the river's hydropower generating capacity. The single most significant impact—both now and in the future—on the use of water and its management in the Mekong Region is hydropower.

The Irrigated Rice Research Consortium (IRRC) focuses on agricultural research and extension in irrigated rice-based ecosystems. In partnership with national agricultural research and extension systems (NARES) and the private sector, the IRRC provides a platform for the dissemination and adoption of natural resource management (NRM) technologies in Asian countries. The IRRC is currently active in 11 countries: Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam. It aims to strengthen NARES-driven interdisciplinary research, link research and extension, facilitate rice farmers' uptake of technological innovations, and enable environmentally sound rice production to expand to feed growing populations.

The Regional Strategic Analysis and Knowledge Support System (ReSAKSS) was established in 2006 and compiles and analyzes information to help design and evaluate rural development strategies and monitor the progress of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP). CAADP is a program of the African Union and the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), which aims to increase the share of national budgets allocated to agriculture.

Water, Land and Ecosystems organization

Water, Land and Ecosystems is one of several new research programmes approved by the CGIAR during 2011 after an extensive period of consultation that began in 2009. This research programme will draw on the resources of 14 CGIAR and numerous external partners to provide a more integrated approach to research into managing natural resources. The aim of the research programme is to increase agricultural productivity while protecting the environment, so food security is ensured for most of humanity and that poverty becomes history. The five main strands to the programme are: River basins; Irrigation systems; Information systems; Resource reuse and recovery; and Rainfed agriculture systems.

National Innovations on Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) was launched during February 2011 by Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) with the funding from Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India. The mega project has three major objectives of strategic research, technology demonstrations and capacity building. Assessment of the impact of climate change simultaneous with formulation of adaptive strategies is the prime approach under strategic research across all sectors of agriculture, dairying and fisheries. Evolving climate resilient agricultural technologies that would increase farm production and productivity vis-à-vis continuous management of natural and manmade resources constitute an integral part of sustaining agriculture in the era of climate change. The four modules of NICRA – natural resource management, improving soil health, crop production and livestock – is aimed making the farmers self-reliant.

This page describes energy and electricity production, consumption and import in Laos.

Indian Institute of Soil Science

The Indian Institute of Soil Science is an autonomous institute for higher learning, established under the umbrella of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) by the Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India for advanced research in the field of soil sciences.

References

  1. "CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food website". Archived from the original on 2018-06-27. Retrieved 2018-11-07.
  2. Basin Focal Projects Wiki
  3. "Andean Project Website". Archived from the original on 2009-02-21. Retrieved 2019-05-08.
  4. Niger Project Website Archived March 26, 2010, at the Wayback Machine