This case study draws on research that investigated the perspectives and experiences of civil society organisations with regard to access to urban land by the poor. The research was conducted by Warren Smit, commissioned by Urban LandMark. An introduction to the case study is given below. On the back of this sheet some learning and reflection activities are provided. You can do these activities on your own or in groups, as appropriate for your learning session. Look carefully at these activities before you begin so you know what to look for while you are reading.

Smallholder irrigation expansion would signi cantly increase agricultural production, and reduce food insecurity and poverty levels in East Africa. This paper reviews literature on trends, constraints and opportunities of smallholder irrigation in four East African countries: Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. Irrigation development has been slow in these countries, and has been mainly through traditional schemes.

This Research Report chronicles the evolution of thinking on water productivity in the research agenda of IWMI and in the broader irrigation literature over the past 20 years. It describes the origins of the concept and the methodological developments, its operationalization through applied research, and some lessons learned over the two decades of research.

A survey of 76 public smallholder irrigation schemes in the Limpopo Province was jointly conducted by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF), South Africa, and the Limpopo Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (LDARD), as part of the ‘Revitalization of Smallholder Irrigation in South Africa’ project.

Innovations to improve staple crop germplasm can reduce poverty and otherwise improve farmer livelihoods through complex and multiple pathways. This paper reviews the evidence for one prominent pathway—through increased incomes (in cash and kind) for poor farmers who adopt the technology.