Drip Irrigation for Agriculture

Jean-Philippe Venot is a researcher at the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD/UMR G-EAU) and is affiliated to the Water Resources Management group of Wageningen University, The Netherlands. He is currently based at the Royal University of Agriculture in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Marcel Kuper is a senior irrigation scientist at the International Agricultural Centre for Research and Development (CIRAD/UMR G-EAU), France, and a visiting professor at the Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences Institute Hassan II in Rabat, Morocco. 　Margreet Zwarteveen is professor of Water Governance at IHE Delft Institute for Water Education, and at the Governance and Inclusive Development Group of the University of Amsterdam, both in the Netherlands.

• Section I: Setting the Scene: Diverse Perspectives on Drip Irrigation 1. From Obscurity to Prominence: How Drip Irrigation Conquered the World 2. Decentering the Technology: Explaining the Drip Irrigation Paradox 3. The Practice of Designing and Adapting Drip Irrigation Systems Section II: Efficiency and Water Saving 4. Re-allocating Yet-to-be-Saved Water in Irrigation Modernization Projects, the Case of the Bittit Irrigation System, Morocco 5. Unraveling the Enduring Paradox of Increased Pressure on Groundwater Through Efficient Drip Irrigation 6. Sour Grapes: Multiple Groundwater Enclosures in Morocco’s Saïss Region Section III: Modernization and Agrarian Change 7. Creating Small Farm Entrepreneurs or Doing Away with Peasants? State Driven Implementation of Drip Irrigation in Chile 8. Conquering the Desert: Drip Irrigation in the Chavimochic System in Peru 9. An Elite Technology? Drip Irrigation, Agro-Export and Agricultural Policies in Guanajuato, Mexico 10. Collective Drip Irrigation Projects between Technological Change and Social Construction: Some observations from Morocco Section IV: Poverty and Development 11. Historical Perspective on Low-Cost Drip Irrigation Design and Promotion 12. Low Cost Drip Irrigation in Zambia: Gendered Practices of Promotion and Use 13. The Conundrum of Low Cost Drip Irrigation in Burkina Faso: Why Development Interventions that Have Little to Show for Continue 14. The Mysterious Case of the Persistence of Donor-and-NGO-Driven Irrigation Kit Investments for African Smallholder Farmers Section V: Alliances, Networks and Innovation 15. ‘Bricolage’ as an Everyday Practice of Contestation of Smallholders Engaging with Drip Irrigation 16. The ‘Innovation Factory’: User-Led Incremental Innovation of Drip Irrigation Systems in the Algerian Desert 17. Intermediaries in Drip Irrigation Innovation Systems: A Focus on Retailers in the Saïs Region in Morocco 18. Drip Irrigation and State Subsidies in India: Understanding the Success of the Gujarat Green Revolution Company Postscript: A Dialectic Inquiry in the World of Drip Irrigation

‘Everything you always wanted to know about drip irrigation, but were afraid to ask. This fascinating volume uncovers untold stories that question the claims of efficiency, water saving, poverty alleviation and development. The book thus is obligatory reading not only for water engineers and agricultural scientists, but also for development workers, policy makers and social scientists.’ - Wiebe E. Bijker, Professor of Technology & Society, Maastricht University.‘For the first time, we must confront the complexity of drip irrigation: a water-supply revolution to safeguard food security or a cheap fix that prolongs simplistic supply-side thinking? This volume is a must-read for social scientists, irrigation engineers, and policymakers alike.’ - Christopher Scott, Professor and Distinguished Scholar, University of Arizona.‘A powerful antidote to the technocratic literature on drip irrigation, the analysis masterfully weaves together sociological, political, and philosophical threads. An important and original contribution to our understanding of the collective narratives at play as we enact complex changes to water governance in search of greater sustainability.’ - Karen Bakker, Professor and Canada Research Chair, University of British Columbia.‘We all have much to learn before smallholders in the global South adopt drip irrigation at scale. That is where this book comes in and why it is so important.’ - from the Foreword, by Andy Keller, Keller-Bliesner Engineering and Utah State University, USA‘It is high time that more clarity be brought to the debate about drip irrigation, its specificities, and the role it can play in agricultural development strategies, and that is exactly what this book helps doing.’ - from the Foreword, by Jean-Marc Faurès, UN Food and Agriculture Organization‘This book makes a significant contribution to not only irrigation studies, but to interdisciplinary development studies more generally.’ - from the Foreword, by Peter Mollinga, SOAS, University of London, UK"Overall, the book is a must-read for anyone interested in agricultural water management in any part of the world. It challenges popular wisdom on drip irrigation and shows the complex dimensions of the technology from a wider set of vantage points." - Dawit Mekonnen in Water Alternative (2018)