TITLE:
A framework for the use of decision-support tools at various spatial scales for the management of irrigated agriculture in West-Africa
AUTHORS:
Joost Wellens, Farid Traoré, Mamadou Diallo, Bernard Tychon
KEYWORDS:
Irrigation; Remote Sensing; Multi-Level; Decision-Support Tool
JOURNAL NAME:
Agricultural Sciences,
Vol.4 No.8A,
August
19,
2013
ABSTRACT: The Kou watershed,
situated in the Southwestern part of Burkina Faso, has succumbed since a
couple of decades in a typical theater play of anarchistic water management.
With its 1800 km2, this small watershed holds the second largest city of
Burkina Faso (Bobo-Dioulasso), a former State ran irrigated rice scheme and
several informal agricultural zones. Despite the abundance on water
resources, most water users find themselves regularly facing to water shortages
due to an increase in population and low irrigation efficiencies. Local
stakeholders are hence in need of easy-to-use and low-cost decision support
tools for the monitoring and exploitation of the water resources at different
spatial and user levels. A top-to-bottom string of adapted water management
tools has been successfully installed to tackle the problems: from watershed
(top) to field level (bottom), passing by the 1200 ha irrigation scheme. Land use maps have been derived from
time-series of free satellite images. Combined with data from a network of hydrologic gauging stations, regional water use maps were established. SIMIS was put
in place for the public-private management of the regions irrigated rice
scheme. Day to day water use on irrigated plots was followed by soil humidity and crop canopy measurements. A simple
field-cropwater balance model Aqua Crop was used by extension workers to
draft optimal irrigation charts. Each tool was applied independently, requiring
only limited data; but their combined results contributed to an improved integrated
water management.