New Delhi, April 8 -- The world has to feed a growing population with the same area of land and less water. Irrigation is key to managing this problem. A 10-year project called Transforming Irrigation in Southern Africa focused on capacity constraints on schemes in Mozambique, Tanzania and Zimbabwe and how to solve them.

This led to a new project that uses small-scale irrigation schemes as learning sites for circular food systems. Here, the researchers involved in the projects share some findings.

What are the barriers to smallholder irrigation schemes? First is a lack of coherence between national policies and local realities. The objectives of governments and funders don't always align with the livelihood goals of irrigators. Governm...