Abstract
Globally, rainfed crop yields are about 50% lower than yields obtained under irrigated conditions. The low productivity of rainfed agricultural systems is the main factor that accentuates hunger, poverty, unemployment, and illegal migration in Central America and other regions in Latin America. Because of rainfall dependence, farmers can cultivate their crops during only one growing season per year, with high vulnerability to periodic droughts and flooding. To face the challenge of a sustainable food supply in the context of increasing food demand, since the mid-2000s, FLAR (Latin American Fund for Irrigated Rice), a public-private alliance of organizations from 17 Latin American countries, CFC (Common Fund for Commodities) and CIAT (International Center for Tropical Agriculture) have been investing resources and efforts to sustainably intensify and diversify high-risk rainfed production systems through capturing runoff rainwater in reservoirs to transform those systems into highly profitable irrigated systems. This article summarizes concepts, results, and experiences from pilot farms using water harvesting in Nicaragua and Mexico, where irrigation combined with smart crop management practices allowed small-/medium-scale farmers to increase their yields of rice, maize, beans, and high-value crops by two to four times in comparison with historical yields obtained under rainfed conditions.
Highlights
Central America has seven countries and four of them are located across an eco-region denominated Central American Dry Corridor (Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua)
FAO reports that ∼1.6 million people suffer from food insecurity in the Central American Dry Corridor and 3.5 million require immediate humanitarian assistance
The visible impact demonstrated that water harvesting is a sustainable and profitable alternative for small-scale farmers to guarantee an irrigation water supply for the dry season
Summary
Central America has seven countries and four of them are located across an eco-region denominated Central American Dry Corridor (Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua) Climatic conditions in this region are difficult for agriculture because of the unimodal pattern of precipitation that permits cultivating crops only during a 6-month rainy season. The visible impact demonstrated that water harvesting is a sustainable and profitable alternative for small-scale farmers to guarantee an irrigation water supply for the dry season Those farmers that adopted the technology became prepared to face periodic droughts without suffering losses in their fields and were able to diversify crop production and even include fishery in their system all year long in a competitive way
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