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.

Development partners and public investors assume that spate irrigation reduces household poverty and malnutrition. This article examines whether the poverty profiles of smallholder farmers and the nutritional outcomes of their children have improved as a result of using spate irrigation. The study areas were in two regional states in Ethiopia. Twenty-five users each, both from traditional and modern spate irrigation schemes, and an equal number of non-users responded to a structured questionnaire.