Climate Resilient Agriculture

Accelerating farmer-led irrigation development

Off-season farmer-led irrigation (2)

Access to affordable irrigation technologies is improving for smallholder farmers across Africa and Asia. However, limited technical, commercial and financial capacities, weak last-mile services and difficulties in accessing finance continue to constrain sustainable irrigation development. With more than 25 years of experience, we help smallholder farmers access irrigation, strengthen climate resilience, increase production and generate income.

We accelerate farmer-led irrigation development (FLID) by strengthening the condition farmers need to invest and succeed:

FLID

  • Co-create solutions with farmers, adapted to local needs and conditions.

  • Strengthen last-mile markets and services, connecting farmers with reliable technologies, suppliers and technical support

  • Develop practical tools to guide technology and investment decisions

  • Improve access to finance and reduce investment risks

  • Connect key actors to build sustainable and scalable irrigation markets

Find more information about our approach in this brochure

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Product development & capacity building

Demonstration of an app to a group of women next to solar panels

Practica develops practical tools, technologies and skills to make climate resilient agriculture more accessible and scalable.

Our approach is based on learning by doing, combining technical knowledge with hands-on training for farmers, technicians, suppliers, service providers and institutions.

We support capacity building in irrigation design, solar pumping, manual drilling, installation, maintenance, water management and financial assessment.

We also develop practical innovations and decision-support tools, including:

  • IRRIS concept to support the design and sizing of irrigation systems
  • Calao Agri - financial tool to assess the financial viability and risks of irrigation investments, in partnership with Aliénor Consulting SAS.
  • the Zaïner, a low-cost mechanised tool that makes Zaï pit preparation faster and less labour-intensive, improving rainwater retention and climate resilience
IRRIS
Caloa

Project implementation

Practica helps turn farmer-led irrigation into scalable local services by combining technology, finance, entrepreneurship and capacity building.

In Mozambique, we are testing Solar Irrigation Agencies (SIAs): local service models that connect farmers with solar irrigation technologies, installation, finance and maintenance. We also work with IHE Delft on sand rivers as sustainable water sources, linking nature-based solutions with solar irrigation. Watch the following video "Water that exists below dry rivers - How to use it sustainably?" to see the results.

In Madagascar, Practica supports the RIZ Plus programme to scale farmer-led irrigation through solar irrigation solutions, finance mechanisms, stakeholder capacity building.

Our focus is simple: go beyond equipment delivery and build the local services and markets that make irrigation last and scale.

Solar irrigation MG

Technical Assistance

DJI_0467

As part of the PARIIS project, our role as Type 2 Strategic Partner (PS T2) was to provide technical assistance to the projects units of the 6 PARIIS countries (Mauritania, Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger & Tchad), and to ensure the capacity building of public and private actors.

  • Advisory support to the partners in charge of the field implementation.
  • Technical trainings to the private sector and institutional actors
  • Capitalisation and sharing the lessons learnt in each country
  • Strengthening of the capacity of Permanent Interstate Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS)

This experience contributes to Practica’s broader work on creating the enabling environment for Farmer-Led Irrigation Development, connecting farmers with technologies, finance, services and supportive institutions.

Innovations

Zainer

The zainer is simple machine to support climate resilient agriculture. It allows to easily and quickly made Zaï holes.

Learn more

IRRIS

IRRIS is an app facilitating the choice of pumps for solar irrigation systems. Enter the specifications of your farm, and get info on the pump and panels needed.

Download the app

Sunflower pumps

The sunflower range of pumps have been developed by Practica and are now owned and commercialised by Futurepump. 

Visit Futurepump's website
Click here to discover more

Latest news on irrigation

Financing solar irrigation

4 November 2022