Agriculture accounts for 70 per cent of global water consumption, but population growth, climate change and other man-related effect are likely to make water one of the most limiting resources of all production factors for agriculture. Profound and in-depth expert knowledge is key to successfully safeguard the supply of water and develop sustainable solutions for its use. A central challenge to such an effort is that sources of information are dispersed or not accessible at all. The highly valuable knowledge, experiences and approaches in agricultural water use development cooperation gained until the early 1990s, for instance, were not electronically available.
As the focus of development cooperation had increasingly shifted away from agricultural water use the extensive knowledge is in danger to be lost for good. In response to this challenge, the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) recently launched the global knowledge platform for agricultural water management. The wiki-based platform is an initiative of GIZ’s “Rural Development and Agriculture” and “Water, Energy and Transport” departments. It is intended to foster the global knowledge platform for agricultural water management: www.agriwaterpedia.info.
This platform is a tool to discuss strategies and challenges related to agricultural water use on a global scale. It provides practitioners and experts in development cooperation with approaches and good practices and draws data from experiences and lessons learnt in the field from a variety of developing countries.
What is Agriwaterpedia?
Agriwaterpedia is a knowledge platform on agricultural water management aiming at the improvement of food security under conditions of climate change in developing countries. www.agriwaterpedia.info stands for easy and free access to knowledge and invites you to share your own knowledge and experience by contributing articles and documents.
What does Agriwaterpedia provide?
- Thematic articles written by development professionals and practitioners
- Access to practical experiences and approaches through good practices
- Online library with over 260 publications in PDF format, digitally available only on Agriwaterpedia
- References to knowledge hubs and sources of information
Who is addressed?
The platform provides easy and free access for all those interested in the subject, in particular users who work in the context of development cooperation. Agriwaterpedia focuses on two types of users:
- Generalists working in development organizations who are in need of a concise overview on specific aspects of agricultural water management for well-informed decision-making and management tasks.
- Practitioners in development programs who frequently need context-specific and in-depth documentation for locally adapted solutions.
How can you help?
Like all wikis, Agriwaterpedia depends on user contributions. Please feel free to improve
the platform by editing or writing articles, or by uploading publications.
Learn more:
Browse www.agriwaterpedia.info and sign up for an account today!
Peruse the GIZ flyer.
Source: GIZ flyer.