Irrigation Technology Interventions as Potential Options to Improve Water Security in India and Africa: A Comparative Review

Abstract

Water is an essential resource for the realization of the United Nations’ 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. The increasing global food insecurity, hunger, human population, and uneconomical extraction and use of non-renewable resources require, among other things, a substantial intensification of agricultural production. In this context, there has been a need to adopt irrigation technologies, especially in developing countries where agriculture and its allied sectors employ more than 50% of the total population but account for up to 90% of the total freshwater consumptive use. India and Africa are at the crux of this conundrum, where there is an urgent need to build resilience with the already excessively allotted water resources. Innovative and water-efficient irrigation technologies could be one of the windows of opportunity to overcome water scarcity and enhance food security in these regions. This review sought to comparatively explore how irrigation technological interventions could help overcome water security challenges in India and Africa. Literature retrieved from multidisciplinary electronic databases indicated that, as part of the global south, both India and Africa have untapped irrigation potential due to the adoption of individual-centric irrigation. The irrigation approaches that possess the capacity to increase water and food security as well as reduce poverty levels in India and Africa are broadly grouped into micro-irrigation technologies, renewable energy-powered irrigation technologies, flood recession agriculture, and underground transfer of surface flood water for irrigation. Unlike in India, where overexploitation or extraction is the primary driver of water scarcity (physical scarcity), water insecurity in Africa results from poor management (economic scarcity). The adoption of the foregoing interventions is challenged by existing cultural and land tenure issues, limited access to efficient irrigation technologies and credit services, as well as an overreliance on national governments for support. Despite these challenges, opportunities exist for smallholder irrigation expansion. This study indicates that both Indian and African governments ought to offer stimulus packages that encourage holistic farmer-centric irrigation technologies to improve food and water security.

1. Introduction

The globally prevailing food insecurity, hunger, increasing population, and uneconomical extraction and use of non-renewable resources requires—among other things—a substantial intensification of agricultural production [1,2]. Due to unreliable rainfall, increasing population, drought, and desertification, there has been a need to adopt water saving modern irrigation schemes [3]. Such schemes require water, and yet access to clean, reliable, affordable, and safe drinking water is still a global challenge [4]. The International Water Management Institute estimates that 33% of the global population may experience complete water scarcity by 2025. Asian, Sub-Saharan African, and Middle Eastern regions with marked poverty are the most likely to be severely impacted [5]. With interference from anthropogenic pollution, it is vital to undertake a paradigm shift to realize optimal productivity per unit of water utilized. The shift itself will, in one way or another, necessitate integrated approaches that optimize irrigation. Thus, a water-secure world calls for a multidimensional and integrative approach to sustainable water management [6].

The conceptual definition of water security provided by the United Nations is ‘‘the capacity of a population to safeguard sustainable access to adequate quantities of acceptable quality water for sustaining livelihoods, human well-being, and socio-economic development, for ensuring protection against water-borne pollution and water-related disasters, and for preserving ecosystems in a climate of peace and political stability’’ [7]. This classification of water security is based on the one provided in the Strategic Plan for the Eighth Phase of the International Hydrological Programme of UNESCO [8]. According to this definition, human wellbeing includes a variety of elements, including necessities for a happy existence, individual autonomy, positive social interactions, and security.

Recognizing that the impacts of external pressures (notably unsustainable water consumption patterns, increased incidences of water-related disasters, and environmental degradation) threaten water security, the United Nations brought the role of water to the forefront by elevating and reflecting it accordingly in the post-2015 development agenda. Sustainable Development Goal 6 advocates for access to and sustainable water supply and sanitation [9]. A water secure planet would integrate concern for the intrinsic value of water, supporting the idea that water security has an array of beneficial outcomes. Therefore, water security will not be realized unless appropriate strategies are laid with collaboration among communities as well as national sectors/countries (Figure 1) [7].

Countries of the world that are most likely to face high levels of water insecurity are those that receive low rainfall or have erratic rainfall patterns, with exponential population growth in areas with scarcity of freshwater resources or those regions with international water resource competition [10]. India and Africa are at the crux of this conundrum, where the need to build resilience with the already excessively allotted water resources to support the growing populations and economies [11,12] makes innovative and water-efficient irrigation technologies one of the windows of opportunity to overcome water scarcity, improve food and nutritional security (increase food production), agrarian income (inequality and poverty alleviation), enhance water access, sanitation, and hygiene conditions, and women empowerment [13,14]. Therefore, analysis of the present technological and traditional irrigation systems could provide an insight into some of the available opportunities to exploit to improve water security. This study comparatively synthesizes some of the technological innovations in Indian and African irrigation agriculture and how they could be harnessed to improve water security. The paper is organized as follows: First, an introduction is presented, explaining why this review is relevant at this point in time. The paper then proceeds in three further sections: a brief account of how the considered literature was sourced from multidisciplinary electronic databases; The Section 3 highlights the status of irrigation and its innovations in India and Africa and how they could aid in improving water security in these regions. The challenges and opportunities for leveraging these interventions are further discussed. Lastly, conclusions are presented in the fourth part of the paper.

2. Methods

2.1. Study Area Description

2.1.1. India

India is an agrarian Asian country with an estimated 1.393 billion people in 2021, and this could hit 1.6 billion by 2050 [12]. It occupies an approximate area of 1,147,955 square miles [15]. India’s agricultural sector makes a 15% contribution to its annual gross domestic product [GDP] but relies primarily on the summer monsoon [16]. Hydrometeorological events, viz., persistent floods, prolonged droughts, cyclones, and hailstorms, have exerted varying effects on India’s agricultural sector [17]. Thus, irrigation schemes have been adopted to improve agricultural productivity in India. However, intense ground water extraction has placed India as one of the countries with the highest ground water extraction history and thus facing one of the most severe water crises in the world [18],. For instance, the per capita availability in terms of average utilizable water resources, which stood at 5247 m³ in 1951, is now 1453 m³ and might dwindle down to 1170 m³ by 2050 [19]. Groundwater development in many states has surpassed 100%. Punjab tops the list with a groundwater development of 149%, followed by Rajasthan (140%). Agriculture and its allied sectors employ over 54.6% of the rapidly expanding population, and this redefines the urgency for sustainable irrigation and agriculture using water-efficient technologies [19].

2.1.2. Africa

After Asia, Africa follows as the second-most diverse and densely populated continent. It accounts for at least 16% of the total human population, which occupies about 30.3 million square kilometers of land [20]. The majority of Africans (67%) work in the agricultural sector, as most economies are agrarian in nature, i.e., 30 to 60 percent of the continental GDP [21]. Due to pressure from the growing population and the need to attain food security, irrigation has been taken up in many African countries [22]. However, the problem of water stress has contributed immensely to the chronic poverty in the region [23]. It is reported that one in three Africans experiences water scarcity, and an estimated 400 million people in sub-Saharan Africa lack access to adequate drinking water as essential resources are still not widely available in Africa [24].

2.2. Literature Search Strategy

A comprehensive review of alternatives furnished by irrigation technologies and innovations that can advance water security in India and Africa was conducted. The searches, which included peer-reviewed studies, organizational reports, and gray literature dated until July 2023, were retrieved from multidisciplinary electronic databases such as Springer Link, Scopus, Emerald Insight, Google Scholar, PubMed, and Science Direct. The documents generated were screened using their titles, abstracts, and keywords, using key terms such as “irrigation technologies”, “water saving technology”, “water security”, “Africa”, “Sub Saharan Africa”, “India”, “irrigation”, “drip irrigation”, “water insecurity”, “trickle irrigation” and ‘‘micro- irrigation.’’ To uncover the relevant documents, publications, and news summaries from international organizations and regional, national, and subnational agencies, a supplementary search was conducted in the Google search engine. All the searches were performed independently, and the retrieved reports were screened for possible duplicates in EndNote^® X9 (Thomson Reuters, Philadelphia, PA, USA). To refrain from bias, only reports published in or translated into English were considered in this review.

3. Results

The irrigation approaches that possess the capacity to increase water security in India and Africa are comparatively discussed herein. These have been broadly divided into: (1) micro-irrigation technologies; (2) renewable energy-powered irrigation technologies; (3) flood recession agriculture; and (4) underground transfer of surface flood water for irrigation. The current challenges with these technologies as well as how they can be overcome are also discussed.

3.1. Micro-Irrigation Technologies

Micro-irrigation is traced as far back as 1917, when it was adopted in Germany, Denmark, New Zealand, and America for the cultivation of greenhouse crops [25]. Shortly after, MI (principally drip irrigation) was accepted as a viable initiative when inexpensive, weather-resistant polyethylene plastics came into full production post-World War II [25]. Indeed, traditional irrigation methods not only waste water but also cause top soil loss through erosion, significantly increasing energy usage, weed growth in farms, and salinity levels in soils [26,27]. Flood irrigation is one of the most widely adopted technologies; however, the efficiency of the water used in this technique is estimated at only 40%; this implies that evaporation or distribution emits 60% of the water [26,28]. Micro-irrigation (MI) technologies include drip, spray, subsurface, bubbler, and sprinkler irrigation. In the classical model of irrigation efficiency, these technologies offer targeted dropping of water to the roots of the crop, drop by drop, through surface or underground distribution networks that reduce conveyance losses, evaporation, runoff, and deep percolation [12,29]. Properly designed and managed MI (drip and sprinkler irrigation) systems have efficiencies between 70% and 90% [19]. This provides an avenue to: (1) save water in irrigated agriculture; (2) increase household income and food and nutritional security; and (3) reduce poverty. Further, they can be automated, which logistically saves time and reduces the quantity of water used. Much inspiration to take up MI worldwide has been due to the potential of the scheme (particularly drip irrigation) to transform the desert nation of Israel into a water surplus-nation [27].

3.1.1. India’s Perspective

In India, micro (drip) irrigation technologies arrived in the 1970s from developed countries such as the USA and Israel [25]. Since then, the Government of India and other non-governmental institutions have advocated for MI through the provision of financial, institutional, and technical support systems [27,30,31,32]. At the moment, only Andhra Pradesh, Sikkim, and Karnataka have well over half of their net cultivable land covered by MI [27]. Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Telangana have at least 85% of their total agricultural land under drip irrigation (Figure 2). Haryana and Rajasthan states have majorly adopted sprinkler irrigation [25,27,33].

The current MI uptake across India is, still low, though, it has grown over the years nationally [12]. For example, in Assam and Odisha, merely 0.72% and 2.46% of the total net sown area are covered under MI [34]. The Indian government launched MI and reaffirmed it as a major breakthrough in 2006. Other later strides, such as the “National Mission on MI” and “National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture,” had clear missions to promote MI systems [27]. The government subsequently bundled all ongoing irrigation schemes in July 2015 and inaugurated the “Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana,” which sought to improve water use efficiency and conserve water. With its tagline “har khet ko pani” for “assured irrigation to every farm,” in order to cover the 71.74 million hectares of arable land that were previously anticipated to be unirrigated, the blueprint called for smallholder farmers to get a 55% subsidy to install MI systems [27]. Between 2015 and 2017, an estimated 8.7 million hectares of Indian land were under MI, which is 13% of its full potential [35]. As of 2021, MI coverage has steadily increased to 13.47 million hectares (48% drip and 52% sprinkler) (Figure 3) [34].

In India, other private organizations have also supported the MI movement. ConserWater Technologies and Bengaluru-based Fly Bird Innovation constituted a low-cost irrigation system and fertigation irrigation regulators for farmers in their farm fields as per crop requirements to improve crop yields [26,36,37]. Similarly, Gujarat Green Revolution Company Limited also introduced a similar effort for the execution of MI [27]. The Sehgal Foundation, another India-based agricultural development NGO, has promoted MI, mulching, laser leveling, and the use of water absorbents to maintain soil moisture [38]. The use of these water-saving irrigation practices reduces the consumption of water by 25–85%, basis improving farm productivity and minimizing labor costs and pest and diseases incidences. It further educates farmers that efficient use of water is the key to agricultural development. Recently, the RESILIENCE project (http://resilienceindia.org/node/119, accessed on 25 June 2023), in an attempt to address the challenges limiting MI uptake and its increased adoption in India, performed field demonstrations of MI along with other water-saving irrigation practices and capacity building and training programs in four districts in Odisha (Cuttack and Ganjam) and Assam (Golaghat and Sivasagar) [34]. The MI resulted in 20–70% water savings, a substantial (10% to 90%) increase in yields, a two- to four-fold increase in irrigation, and economic water productivity, which prompted some farmers to adopt the MI [34]. This is in agreement with previous authors [39,40], who reiterated that Indian farmers who adopted MI technologies aimed at enhancing their agricultural yields (“per drop more crop” mantra) and reducing pressure on groundwater or improving water security.

The salient socioeconomic and institutional factors influencing MI uptake in India include cropping pattern, groundwater access, proportion of capital, education level, socio-economic capacity of the farmers, fragmented landholding, lack of technical know-how to operate and maintain MI equipment, unreliable electricity power for operating MI, and low levels of awareness on the benefits of adopting MI [27,34]. In the context of subsidies (up to 80%) under the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana, it has been reported that small-scale farmers in some states such as Assam, Rajasthan, and Odisha were still unable to access and afford the subsidy [34,41]. In a recent review, it was concluded that the capital-intensive nature of MI as an intervention is a major hindrance to its adoption. Even with subsidy schemes, the penetration of MI vis-à-vis cultivable area and estimated irrigation potential in India remains low [42] because the decision to adopt MI is influenced by household, farm level, and institutional factors. It should also be noted that adoption of MI may not translate into water conservation unless farmers do not expand the area under irrigation or shift to water-intensive crops, which are more commercially valuable [42].

As women are at the core of Indian agriculture (feminization of agriculture) as well as climate change mitigation and resource conservation management, it is imperative to engage them in activities related to MI uptake. Explorations into the gender dimensions of MI development in India have indicated that few women have adopted MI technologies [30]. In Rajasthan state, for example, Birkenholtz [41] highlighted that female laborers provided a “feminine labour subsidy”, which results in productive efficiency gains, thereby lending drip MI infrastructure its durability. Studies conducted globally have come to the conclusion that female farmers can be just as prolific as men if they have equitable access to resources including acreage, technology, mentoring, markets, and sovereignty over their outputs [43]. Taken together, the magnitude of the economic output surplus following the switch from conventional irrigation methods to MI systems, the structure of the use of the conserved water, and the nature and possible number of adopters all determine the influence of MI on the sustainability of groundwater resources [40]. Therefore, a multipronged strategy is required to increase MI adoption in India. For instance, intersectoral convergence of resources to enhance integrated planning and social capital requires interdepartmental and interorganizational coordination among multiple governmental and non-governmental organizations, especially those working on the same scheme [34].

3.1.2. African Perspective

Uptake of MI technologies in Africa is quite lower than in India when compared to surface irrigation [29,44,45,46]. It has the lowest percentage (<1%) of land under MI from global estimates [47], mostly (75%) owned by smallholder farmers [48]. The picture in the West African Sahel is even more worrying as it is on the Sahara Desert’s periphery, and past attempts at irrigation development have not yielded much success [49]. To this end, we draw on some reports from different parts of Africa, which provide a picture of the adoption of MI technologies across the continent.

Micro-Irrigation Uptake in North Eastern Africa (Egypt)

The Middle East and North Africa are the worst affected in terms of the physical water deficit globally [50]. Egypt is a North African country with water scarcity problems by virtue of its location in the Sahara Desert (with the Nile River being the only source of fresh water) as well as political turmoil in the region [51,52]. The Egyptian government has thus initiated a Farm-level Irrigation Modernization Project to upgrade irrigation systems in the northern part of the country. The sole aim of the project is to curtail water consumption through the incorporation of clean (renewable) energy into the agricultural sector [51]. The World Bank outcome brief indicated that the upgrade of irrigation enhanced Egyptian farmers’ access to water [53]. The Farm-level Irrigation Modernization Project is a World Bank-funded project that has enabled modernization of agricultural irrigation (replacement of open marwas with buried pipes). The modernized marwa hydraulic system, combined with systematic rotations and the swapping of diesel supply to electrical pumps, improved water flow by up to 85% compared to the initial 50% before the project. In addition to this, the Egyptian government has, as of August 2019, imposed restrictions on the growth of water-intensive agricultural crops such as rice, sugarcane, and bananas in the Nile basin that are necessary to protect the Nile River’s waters [51].

Micro-Irrigation Uptake in Southern Africa

Drawing another example of an irrigation scheme in Southern Africa (the Chinyanja Triangle), Mango et al. [54,55] reported that the adoption of small-scale MI technologies, soil conservation practices and other water conservation practices, improved water and food security (Figure 4). This can be compared to the situation among most Indian farmers [34,39,40]. The Chinyanja Triangle (CT) is composed of three perceptible ecozones that have plateaus on the northernmost tip, sub-humid escarpments in the middle, and semi-arid Shire, Luangwa, and Zambezi river valleys on the southern end [55]. Geographically, the Tete province of Mozambique, the southern and central areas of Malawi, and the eastern province of Zambia make up CT [56,57].

In the context of water management and irrigated cultivation, the agrarian communities within the CT are dependent on climate-sensitive rain-fed agriculture [58] and therefore highly vulnerable to climatic vagaries [57,59]. Low soil fertility (unproductive agricultural lands), high rates of soil erosion downstream, little agricultural investment, and the pristine environment are under further stress due to input consumption, uncontrolled deforestation, and unsustainable land use practices, endangering the food security and livelihoods of those living in the triangle [57,59].

The choice of MI technologies in the CT is influenced by proximity to irrigation gear and reputable water sources, off-farm employment, and awareness of water and soil conservation practices such as rainwater harvesting [54,55,56,60]. The CT has the potential to become the breadbasket of Southern Africa, and efforts to improve the adoption of MI technologies could, in the long run, improve the food security of this triangle and the region at large. In Southern Africa, MI has been adopted by few women due to limited accessibility to both cultural influences and ecological systems [61].

Micro-Irrigation Uptake in Eastern Africa

The late 1990s saw the introduction of low-head drip kits MI in Kenya, East Africa. However, it has since been abandoned by most farmers due to cultural factors and an erratic water supply [62]. In East Africa, customized irrigation techniques, including washer pumps, rope pumps, treadle pumps, small motorized pumps, and drip kits, are the most adopted [28,44]. These technologies are challenged by the current land tenure system in the region, restricted access to MI technologies, dependable markets, inadequate extension services, and inadequate infrastructure [28]. For example, the total land under MI in Uganda is less than 1%, out of 3,030,000 irrigated hectares [63]. In Kenya, MI agriculture accounts for only 4% of the total land area [64].

Smaller adoption rates of MI technologies are also evidenced in Rwanda, Ethiopia, Burundi, and Tanzania, where the sole aim of MI is to increase crop yields or reduce food insecurity [65,66]. This is the same scenario reported in India previously [34,39,40]. In Ethiopia, the provision of loans and reduction in ambiguities related to well drilling have influenced farmers to adopt smallholder irrigation packages [67] which is similar to the initiative in India [27]. Where schemes are communal, low levels of community participation, poorly designed irrigation infrastructures, high construction costs, and delayed project completion have hampered the uptake of MI technologies in Ethiopia [14,68]. Specifically, MI is not well established in Ethiopia [69], despite the country’s endowment with various water resources and being the “water tower of Africa”. Nevertheless, smallholder uptake of drip irrigation technologies has increased in Ethiopia in the past decade [70].

Opportunities for MI expansion and improvement of water security in East Africa exist, with the major ones being rainwater harvesting to enhance water availability and commitment on the side of governments and non-governmental organizations.

Further it calls for donors to boost smallholder MI expansions, as well as exploration of restoring conventional irrigation systems, using low-cost irrigation technology that can be adjusted to local conditions, and using more mobile phones that can be employed to disseminate information [28,68].

Micro-Irrigation Uptake in Western Africa

In Nigeria, Niger, and Mali, shaduf and delou systems (a form of water lifting device with simple rope and bucket arrangements) have been used to harness water for human and animal use and consumption and for small-scale irrigation [71]. The first ever MIs in this region were launched in the valley of the Senegal river (Richard Toll irrigation scheme) and the Inner Niger Delta in Mali. Just as in other parts of Africa and India, MI uptake in West Africa is driven by the need to improve soil conservation, crop yields, and family income [72,73,74].

Gendered analyses of MI projects in this region have underscored the limited participation of women in irrigated agriculture. This is particularly explained by the fact that women still have limited access to resources, such as land and water [75]. In Ghana’s Upper East Region, for example, irrigation is only possible where a community dam is available. Where there are no dams, men dig deep into riverbeds to access water for irrigation of their small plots near the river. However, women with limited access to land near the rivers and the labor needed to dig the wells are placed at a great disadvantage. They are therefore limited to collecting irrigation water from distant places using buckets or jerrycans [75]. Reviews on the experiences in agricultural water management in West Africa [76,77] showed that there is a need for (a) encouraging irrigation based on the market under a public-private partnership model, (b) adoption of smallholder private irrigation while targeting high-value markets, (c) uptake of small-scale irrigation for the neighborhood markets, administered by the community, and (d) instituting reforms as well as modernizing the available large-scale irrigation projects, better water administration and control, and watershed governance in rain-fed localities. Overall, these findings corroborate the fact that adoption of irrigation technologies should be linked with water harvesting, agroforestry, increased water, soil, and food security, and other conservation initiatives [72,78].

3.2. Renewable Energy-Powered Irrigation Technologies

Renewable energy has been thought of as one of the avenues to encourage the adoption of irrigation and its technological interventions. Among Indian rural farmers in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana, Gujarat, Rajasthan, and West Bengal, solar-powered irrigation has been incooperated [79,80,81,82,83,84,85]. Similar initiatives have also been recorded in African countries such as Algeria [86], Kenya [87], Uganda [88], Nigeria [89], Sudan [90], Ghana, Mali, and Ethiopia [91,92,93].

These projects have helped Indian and African countries meet their climate commitments to a considerable extent, e.g., reducing carbon emissions [79,81,83,94,95,96], promoting water-efficient technologies for agriculture, and improving water security [87,95]. Furthermore, solar and wind energy harnessing could be feasible solutions to Indian and African irrigation challenges, as electricity supply to most parts of rural Africa has been stalled by chronic failure [96].

Further, solarizing the highly subsidized farm power segment stands to improve the utilities’ finances, with a green extra income for farmers in the case of India [97]. While renewable energy-powered irrigation technologies are promising, they also have some drawbacks. In Northern Africa, for instance, electricity and diesel converters used for irrigation have received subsidies, which has encouraged exorbitant groundwater extraction [91,96]. A similar danger looms with solar technology, specifically as it “ democratizes energy” and thus provides a steady stream of cheap power, which could facilitate excessive groundwater abstraction [98,99]. As exemplified by the nondescript village Dhundi Saur Urja Utpadak Sahakari Mandali solar-powered irrigation pumps in Gujarat (India), preventing groundwater over-use is critical and feasible if incentives are established by coupling the development of national, or maybe municipal, networks with solar irrigation [97,100]. Solar irrigation is a possible ‘win-win-win-win’ initiative for food, water, energy, and climate change adaptation (reducing overreliance on erratic rainfall while increasing and diversifying incomes) and mitigation (renewable energy to grids, less credence on diesel and electric turbines) [81,83,94,99,101].

In comparison to Africa, India commands an advantageous position for renewable (solar and wind) energy potential and therefore possesses the capacity to expand and popularize its renewable energy-powered irrigation technologies [81,102]. Nevertheless, Africa also has the potential to utilize solar energy, which has the capacity to assist in the continent’s transition to a green future for food, water, and irrigation [99]. Integrating renewable energy sources for irrigation has been correlated with the challenges of irrigation itself. First and foremost, the inequality in irrigation projects as well as water provision has undercut the agency of women in agricultural transformation. Secondly, the underperformance of irrigation schemes resulting from the insufficient cooperation of small holder agrarian communities in infrastructure maintenance has posed a bottleneck to irrigation uptake in developing nations [99,103,104].

3.3. Flood Recession Agriculture

Annual flood regimes of river floodplains, lake margins, and other wetlands constitute important opportunities for agrarian communities that practice flood recessional agriculture. Flood recession agriculture (FRA) is a form of small-scale agriculture utilizes that utilizes the last soil moisture and minerals that melting glaciers have left as floods for farming [105,106]. Recession agriculture is a rudimentary irrigation approach, which in part confers resilience to floods as well as providing water and food security in the long run [105].

In India, FRA is practiced by various communities, such as those in the Ganges River Basin [107] and the Subansiri River Basin of Assam State [108]. Other than providing food and nutritional security, FRA also nurtures agro-biodiversity restoration at the habitat threshold by engaging in farming in various terrains. When contrasted to mechanical plowing techniques, soil moisture is preserved where hoe and animal-drawn plough use is promoted, such as in India [107]. Growing sorghum and cowpea, which conserve water, may also present a chance to conserve water. The natural fertility of floodplains due to flooding also means that there is limited use of synthetic fertilizers in FRA, thereby reducing pollution due to agricultural runoff [107].

Various riparian peasant communities in Africa use recession agriculture to increase food production and thereby improve their food security and livelihoods [105,109,110,111,112]. In the Okavango delta of Ngamiland district (Botswana), FRA (molapo farming) is a crucial land use and source of income for weak and vulnerable societies [109], and it reportedly gives higher grain yields than dryland agriculture [113,114]. Mavhura [115] also reported a flood retreat agricultural practice (Mudzedze) in flood- and drought-agrarian communities of Muzarabani community (Zimbabwe), in which farmers plant at the end of the rainy seasons when the flood waters recede. Another study [105] reported the practice of FRA in the productive floodplains of the White Volta River, Northern Ghana, in low-input, low-output environments.

Other scholars [106,116,117,118] have also attested that such flood recession farming practices are common in flood-prone areas of Kenya, Mali, Ghana, Malawi, Ethiopia, and the Sokoto valleys of West Africa. Riparian FRA is also practiced in other countries outside Africa [119]. This farming practice often offers a window of agricultural opportunity to both Indian and African women who may not own land [107,109]. However, it is constrained by variability in flooding [120,121], and complicated land tenure security is a concern since indigenous communities frequently claim lands inundated by floods. Further research is thus warranted to inform decision making at both the farmer and policy-maker levels on ways to promote sustainable flood recession agriculture.

3.4. Underground Taming of Floods for Irrigation

Coping strategies involving pipe-assisted underground taming of surface flood waters, such as holiyas, are being used [122,123,124,125,126,127]. This strategy is an avenue for increasing farmers’ resilience to droughts, floods, and the productive use of floods, as well as achieving water security [123,125,128]. This overcomes flood-and-drought iterations in agrarian societies, which are characterized by a spatial and temporal disparity in water supply [127].

Holiyas are simple, farmer-centric interventions at plot/farm scale for leveraging local floods and extending crop growing and livestock rearing seasons, improving crop yields and water quality (reducing salinity), addressing local flash floods, waterlogging, and groundwater depletion [123]. Evaluation of holiyas in previous studies [123,129] indicated that holiya owners claimed to have had extended water access during the growing season [122]. Holiyas have been introduced to farmers in Gujarat, Jharkhand, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, and Andhra Pradesh in India), as well as Madagascar, Ghana, and Togo in Africa [130]. India and sub-Saharan Africa have high underground taming of floods for irrigation (UTFI) potential [125].

The UTFI initiative has been given formal recognition by the Government of India and forms part of individualized district irrigation proposals without-scaling budgetary provisions [131]. However, its full potential to afford water security remains understudied, whereas indications to pilot in other countries such as Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, and China have been reported [125,132].

In Africa, UTFI is an untapped initiative except for the traditional systems. Whereas UTFI is a promising twin-strategy and a novel form of conjunctive water use management against droughts and floods and thus the achievement of water security, three factors need to be considered: (1) supply-related flooding and flood implications; (2) demand-related water consumption related to drought incidents and groundwater availability; and (3) storage-related UTFI actions suitable for the subsurface and landscape [125]. Thus, UTFI is both place- and context-specific and requires further assessments if it is to be adopted in the context of Africa and other parts of India.

4. Conclusions

Unlike in India, where water scarcity is driven by overexploitation, water insecurity in Africa is largely a direct consequence of inadequate extraction or a paucity of storage rather than a definitive lack of water. MI in India is popularized with a subsidy component, unlike in Africa. Investment in effective and cutting-edge irrigation solutions in India and Africa has the potential to improve water and food security. However, most agricultural communities use irrigation as a coping strategy to improve their yields and not as an avenue to improve their water security. Thus, the full modern irrigation potential of both India and Africa remains under-tapped. To popularize irrigation schemes with the aim of achieving water security among farmers, there is need to (1) identify highly vulnerable areas and the affordable location-specific systems that could be adopted; (2) ensure that irrigation technologies incorporate the use of renewable energy sources; (3) avail financial support to smallholder farmers to enable them uptake intervention irrigation technologies; and (4) use a multipronged strategy such as involving women farmers and intersectoral convergence of resources so as to enhance integrated planning and social capital; interdepartmental and interorganizational coordination among both multiple governmental and non-governmental organizations. In this perspective, there is a chance to accelerate the adoption of irrigation technology in India and Africa by using a programmatic strategy that supports a holistic investment package (inclusive of input supply, marketing, and environmental impact mitigation).