The objectives of this report are to evaluate and test, with community participation; the benchmark water management options which sustainably improve water productivity, net return per water unit, and optimize water use. The strategies evaluated have to be economically viable, socially acceptable, and environmentally sound in the three different agricultural eco-systems.

The project aims to improve the productivity of degraded rangelands through efficient utilization of limited rainfall. Nearly 48% of farmers in the Muhareb community own flocks, with an average flock size of about 159 head. About 52% of farmers in Um Al Naám own flocks, with an average of 125 head; about 63% of farmers in Muhareb community own a small flock (average 28 head), or a medium flock size (30%, average 293 head), or a large flock (7%, average 751 head. However, about 72% of farmers in Um Al Naám own a small flock, with an average flock size of 36 head.

This report is a documentation of data gathered during the project for the Badia Benchmark, organized in a way to facilitate the on of various disciplines. The purpose is, to facilitate the use of this data for better management of resources during the project and to provide accessible and user friendly database that is suitable for use beyond the project lifetime. It is anticipated that future research and development projects, will build upon this database and continue the documentation to enhance the use of data for the Badia and similar areas.

This report summarizes the experience of an integrated approach for the selection and characterization of watersheds for research, development, or research for development activities.

Climate change has led to more severe conditions throughout the world as well as in Morocco. In general, rainfall has declined and average temperatures have increased. These new rainfall patterns are threatening water supplies. Fluctuations and reductions in annual rainfall have led to severe and frequent droughts throughout the Central and West Asia and North Africa region. Consequently, water resources have become scarce. Increasing municipal and industrial demand for water has resulted in steadily decreasing allocations for agriculture.

The Central and West Asia and North Africa (CWANA) region encompasses large areas of arid and semi-arid zones. These zones may be defined as areas where rainfall, relative to the level of evapotranspiration, is inadequate to sustain reliable crop production. Most of the arid and semi-arid zones of the CWANA region are rangelands and are characterized by wide variability in rainfall and temperature. Droughts are common, resulting in low forage production and crop productivity as well as water scarcity.

This is the fundamental scope of the Irrigation Benchmark Project, where the emphasis was placed on introducing and implementing new water saving technologies. Additionally, emphasis was laid on the participation and involvement of farmers in water users’ associations (WUA) and other community organizations, as well as with government organizations – particularly, those concerned in the Extension Service of the Ministry of Agriculture.

WEB INTRODUCTION: The literature on agricultural large-scale land acquisition in Myanmar is rather fragmented and consists mainly of case studies. While these provide key insights into particular stories, they often fail to identify the main patterns and trends at country level. To fill such gaps, this thematic study aims to present an updated synthesis of the genealogy, institutional complexity and the ins and outs of large-scale land acquisition processes for agricultural development in Myanmar.

This paper deepens the economic analysis of the effects of land consolidation – reduction of land fragmentation. It does this in the context of rural Vietnam, studying whether land consolidation promotes or hinders the Vietnamese government's policy objectives of encouraging agricultural mechanization and stimulating the off-farm rural economy. The analysis views land consolidation as a form of technical change, making it possible to apply the rich insights developed in the economic literature on that subject.

This paper investigates how climate change strategies and resource conflicts are shaping each other in the Greater Aural region of western Cambodia. Agro-industrial projects linked to climate change goals are reshaping both social and ecological dynamics, by altering patterns of access to land and water resources as well as the nature of the resources themselves. Using a landscape perspective, we investigate these social and ecological changes occurring across space and time.

Between Vietnam's independence and its reunification in 1975, the country's socialist land tenure system was underpinned by the principle of "land to the tiller". During this period, government redistributed land to farmers that was previously owned by landlords. The government's "egalitarian" approach to land access was central to the mass support that it needed during the Indochinese war.

Since the early 2000s the Lao government has dramatically increased the number of large-scale land concessions issued for agribusinesses. While studies have documented the social and environmental impacts of land dispossession, the role of Vietnamese labour on these Vietnamese-owned rubber plantations has not previously been investigated. Taking a political ecology approach, we situate this study at the intersection between ‘land grabbing’ studies and work on ‘labour geographies’.