Poster prepared for the ILRI Annual Program Meeting (APM) 2010, held at ILRI campus, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, April 14-17, 2010.

1. Reclaiming Depleted Nile Water
for Life and Livelihoods
1 3 2 1&3 4 1 1 1 5 1
D. Peden , S. Awulachew , M. Alemayehu , T. Amede , H. Faki , A. Haileslassie , J. Gitau , M. Herrero , D. Mpairwe , P. van Breugel
1 2 3
International Livestock Research Institute; Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research, Ethiopia; International Water Management Institute;
4 5
Agricultural Economics and Policy Research Center, ARC, Sudan; Animal Science Department, Makerere University, Uganda
Six Rainfed Livestock Production Systems Six Major Livestock Production
800
• Cover about 60% of the area of the Nile River Basin. 600 Systems in the Nile River Basin
400 (Locations and Description)
• Are home to about 50% of the Nile’s peoples. 200 Arid Arid
Livestock Mixed crop
• Receive about 85% of total basin rainfall (2 trillion m3/year). 0
dominated
systems
Humid livestock
systems
Humid
Area (1000 km2)
• Lose about 75% of basin rainfall as evapotranspiration where Temperate Temperate
evaporation is excessive. 40
• Support 90% of the Nile’s Tropical Livestock units. 30
20
• Use 60 billion m3 of water to produce forages, pasture & crop 10 Egypt
residues for animal feed. 0
Human population (millions)
• Currently expose people to widespread and needless poverty,
hunger and land and water degradation.
30
Sudan
20
Opportunity to increase access to and benefits 10
from rainwater for people and nature 0
Cattle, Sheep and Goat TLU (millions)
• Billions of cubic meters of water are potentially available for
Ethiopia
agricultural production and ecosystem services. 30 Animal water use = 59 billion m3
• Convert excessive evaporation (E) to transpiration (T). 20
DR Congo
Uganda Kenya
• Rehabilitate vegetation in the six livestock production systems. 10
Rwanda
• Increasing water productivity requires: 0
Burundi
Water use for feed by cattle, sheep
• Better access to livelihood assets, and goats (billion m3/year) Tanzania
• Improved livestock & crop husbandry and health,
• Access to markets & value added production, 600 Total rain = 1,680 billion m3 600 Rain lost as ET = 1,272 billion m3
• Land and water conservation, and
400 400
• Capacity building, institutional development, investment & multi-
stakeholder participation. 200 200
0 0
Estimated annual rainfall (billion m3) Estimated actual annual ET (billion m3)
Case example
BEFORE: Degraded system & Lower transpiration AFTER: Rehabilitated system & higher transpiration
Photos 1 & 2: The degraded Cattle Corridor in Uganda is characterized by Photos 3 & 4: Night corralling of livestock deposits manure on previously
over-grazing, excessive charcoal production, vegetation loss, and high run- degraded soils led to rehabilitation of livestock production and ecosystem
off, evaporation, sedimentation, and erosion. Termites consumed any pasture services. Termites seem to shift their diets from pasture grass to manure
vegetation that started to grow. Livestock water productivity and ecosystem enabling reestablishment of vegetative cover.
services dropped to almost nil.
The good news is … And the not so good news is …
Better management of rainwater in livestock systems of the Nile River Basin affords a Restoring the Nile’s agricultural, natural, and aquatic ecosystems remains an elusive
huge opportunity to capture billions of cubic meters of water otherwise depleted as goal given the centuries old challenge of equitably and sustainably managing
evaporation helping to combat desertification while increasing crop and livestock common property natural resources, a challenge now aggravated by population
production and ecosystem and services such as carbon sequestration. growth, poverty, hunger, and transboundary constraints to river basin management.
April 2010
Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Economics and Policy
Makerere University Agricultural Research Research Center, RC, Sudan