Improving Land and Water Management

This working paper examines four land and water management practices aimed at increasing crop yields and livelihoods for smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa's drylands, proposing seven pathways to scale these practices.

• Smallholder farmers in the drylands of Sub-Saharan Africa face low crop yields, poverty, and hunger driven by water stress, depleted soil fertility, land degradation, and high fertilizer costs.
• Four specific land and water management practices are identified as particularly promising for Sub-Saharan African drylands: integrated soil fertility management, rainwater harvesting, conservation agriculture, and agroforestry. These practices can increase resilience to climate change, boost crop yields, and increase the supply of fodder and firewood.
• The paper proposes seven pathways to accelerate the scale-up of these practices: strengthening knowledge management and information access; increasing communication and outreach; supporting policy and institutional reforms (especially property rights); supporting capacity building for community-based natural resource management; increasing support for integrated landscape management; reinforcing private sector engagement and economic incentives; and mainstreaming investments into food security and climate adaptation programs.

APA

World Resources Institute (n.d.). Improving Land and Water Management. https://www.wri.org/research/improving-land-and-water-management

Chicago

World Resources Institute. Improving Land and Water Management. n.d. https://www.wri.org/research/improving-land-and-water-management.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=Improving Land and Water Management |url=https://www.wri.org/research/improving-land-and-water-management |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitutendimproving, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{Improving Land and Water Management}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, url = {https://www.wri.org/research/improving-land-and-water-management}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }