Participatory Integrated Watershed Management

Overview

Reference: P-GM-AAA-001
Approval date: 09/06/2004
Start date: 08/03/2006
Appraisal Date: 30/11/2003
Status: On goingOnGo
Location: The Gambia
Implementing Agency: MINISTRY OF EDUCATION

Management

The Gambia has two broad agro-ecological zones, which comprise the Riverine Lowland Ecosystem and the Upland and Plateau Ecosystem. Both have distinct features in terms of land use. In the former, the prevailing farming system is based on traditional rainfed and irrigated rice cultivation, while the latter is characterised by rainfed farming on freely drained soils. Although, in reality, the distinction between lowlands and uplands is not always clear-cut in terms of slope or altitude variations, development partners have tended to concentrate their attention on lowland areas.

The upland watershed ecosystem in The Gambia has been disturbed and degraded largely due to deforestation and extended periods of shifting cultivation. This has come as a result of pressure on land resources, high population growth rate (4% per annum) and density (96 persons per square km), high immigration rates and high demand in general for increasing cultivated area under cash and export crops such as groundnuts. There is evidence of reduced water infiltration; high water runoff rates; drying of inland valleys and river tributaries and less water availability for crops and livestock. In the transition areas, where many of the villages are situated, there are dramatic signs of gully and sheet erosion, while in the lowlands where most of the investments in agricultural production take place, siltation and sedimentation threaten the sustainability of some of the investment works. The Government has continued to stress the need for investments in the uplands, given that unsustainable land use would have a negative impact on the lowlands.

Rationale

The design of the Participatory Integrated Watershed Management Project (PIWAMP) derives, from the Lowlands Agricultural Development Program (LADEP), its achievements, effects, impact, as well as its strengths and shortcomings, as indicated in the Mid-Term Review (2002). The project design is also based on the lessons learned from similar donor interventions, as well as the two extreme cases of the climatic evolution in the country: a) floods in 1999 and b) drought in the following years (2001-2002), for which the Bank assisted the Government of the Gambia through two emergency relief grant of UA 0.37 million and UA 0.358 million. Thus, food security in the country is seriously affected by these rain and climatic conditions. In this regard, the LADEP project, as a successful project in the lowland areas, has improved water retention structures and reduced moisture stress and risk of crop failure even in dry years, specifically in the Central River Division (CRD) and the North Bank Division (NBD). Furthermore, water retention structures and land reclamation have increased total land available for food and rice production.

The significant success of LADEP lies within the effective community-driven participatory approach. The community’s commitment to maintaining and repairing the water retention structures has contributed to project sustainability. Another significant lesson is that land conflicts have been minimized, leaving land reallocation to the communities themselves. Access to land has thus become less problematic. Women’s access to rice land and their rights over the harvested product has not been disrupted.

The Government of The Gambia recognizes that the two types of climatic fluctuations, mentioned above, remain significant recurrent factors for food insecurity in the country, affecting primarily, the rural population. Floods affect the lowland area, in majority the rice farmers, while drought is most frequent in the upland areas. The GoG regards the PIWAMP as the best approach to address the frequent occurrence of these phenomena. The project will adopt the Village Land Use Management concept («Gestion de Terroir Villageois»), which has evolved in recent years as a means of addressing environmental degradation problems such as loss of soils through wind and water erosion, declining soil fertility, loss of vegetation cover and increasing vulnerability to drought. Many of the most badly affected areas are found in farming zones where the high densities of population and stripping of vegetation cover for clearing land for cultivation are major causes of further resource degradation.

Objective

The project objective is to increase land productivity and reduce soil erosion on a sustainable basis.

Description

The AfDB, through the Nigeria Trust Fund, will be engaged in the Participatory Watershed Management Project (PIWAMP) for six (6) years. The project will empower communities at the grass-roots level through the transfer of control of efficient land use management from the government to local people. The project, in supporting local communities, aims at increasing yields and productivity with regard to crops, livestock and forestry and improving food security and incomes at the household level.

The main project components will be capacity building, watershed development and project management.

Benefits

These will include:

Improved yields of food and cash crops
mproved farming through better agronomic techniques and modest improvements in the input supply; i.e. seed, fertilisers,...
Improved market facilities and rural road infrastructure to facilitate the handling of projected crop increases in
Improved small-scale livestock production technologies such as ram fattening; sheep and goat breeding; rabbit production and small-scale commercial poultry production