Sustainable Water Management in Smallholder Farming: Theory and Practice

In agriculture, water management is key to ensuring good and sustained crop yields, maintaining soil health, and safeguarding the long-term viability of the land. Water management is especially challenging on smallholder farms in resource-poor areas, which tend to be primarily rain-fed and thus highly dependent on unreliable rainfall patterns. This book: outlines the theoretical underpinnings of sustainable water management in agriculture; introduces a range of beneficial practices, including the enhancement of soil water retention, water loss reduction, rainwater harvesting, conservation agriculture, and small-scale irrigation; and provides schematic diagrams, and resources for further reading to help readers put theory into practice.