The Basin Focal Projects (BFPs) are a set of ''

CGIAR CGIAR (formerly the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research) is a global partnership that unites international organizations engaged in research about food security. CGIAR research aims to reduce rural poverty, increase food ...

Challenge Program on Water and Food'' projects aimed at identifying and catalyzing the implementation of strategic interventions to enhance human and ecological well-being through increases in

river basin A drainage basin is an area of land in which all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, th ...

and local level water productivity.

Overview

The Projects provide strategic research that links project and basin activities with the global demand for improved agricultural water productivity. They do this by analyzing conditions in ten river basins under six work packages. *Phase I projects commissioned in 2005 include basins of the

Mekong The Mekong or Mekong River ( , ) is a transboundary river in East Asia and Southeast Asia. It is the world's twelfth-longest river and the third-longest in Asia with an estimated length of and a drainage area of , discharging of wat ...

Karkheh The Choaspes River (Iran) or Karkheh or Karkhen (Persian: کرخه) (perhaps the river known as the Gihon Ancient Greek: Γεῶν Book of Genesis 2:13 —one of the four Rivers of Paradise in the of Garden of Eden/Paradise in the Bible and a ...

, Volta and the Sao Francisco. These four projects have reached completion. They produced valuable insights about the specific nature of the food and water crisis in basins. *Phase II projects commissioned in 2008 include basins of

Indo INDO stands for Intermediate Neglect of Differential Overlap. It is a semi-empirical quantum chemistry method that is a development of the complete neglect of differential overlap (CNDO/2) method introduced by John Pople. Like CNDO/2 it uses zer ...

Ganges The Ganges ( ; in India: Ganga, ; in Bangladesh: Padma, ). "The Ganges Basin, known in India as the Ganga and in Bangladesh as the Padma, is an international which goes through India, Bangladesh, Nepal and China." is a trans-boundary rive ...

Andean The Andes ( ), Andes Mountains or Andean Mountain Range (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long and wide (widest between 18°S ...

system of basins,

Nile The Nile (also known as the Nile River or River Nile) is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa. It has historically been considered the List of river sy ...

Niger Niger, officially the Republic of the Niger, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is a unitary state Geography of Niger#Political geography, bordered by Libya to the Libya–Niger border, north-east, Chad to the Chad–Niger border, east ...

,Niger Project Website

Yellow River The Yellow River, also known as Huanghe, is the second-longest river in China and the List of rivers by length, sixth-longest river system on Earth, with an estimated length of and a Drainage basin, watershed of . Beginning in the Bayan H ...

and the

Limpopo Limpopo () is the northernmost Provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa. It is named after the Limpopo River, which forms the province's western and northern borders. The term Limpopo is derived from Rivombo (Livombo/Lebombo), a ...

and run through 2009. Research projects are led by the

Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is an Australian Government agency that is responsible for scientific research and its commercial and industrial applications. CSIRO works with leading organisations arou ...

, Australia (CSIRO),

University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Davis, California, United States. It is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University ...

(UC-Davis),

Institut de recherche pour le développement The French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development, or ''Institut de Recherche pour le Développement'' (IRD), is a French science and technology establishment under the joint supervision of the French Ministries of Ministry of ...

(IRD),

International Water Management Institute The International Water Management Institute (IWMI) is a non-profit international water management research organisation under the One CGIAR with its headquarters in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and offices across Africa and Asia. One CGIAR is a reformulat ...

(IWMI), Agricultural Research Council of South Africa (ARC) and are supported by FANRPAN,

International Food Policy Research Institute The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) is an international research center focused on agriculture and food systems that provides research-based policy solutions to reduce poverty and end hunger and malnutrition throughout low- ...

(IFPRI) and

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public university, public research university in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV ...

(KCL).

Methodology

BFP analyses are grouped into six work packages: *water poverty, *water availability, *water productivity, *institutional analysis, *intervention analysis and *knowledge management. Problems of water, food and poverty are explored by asking the following kinds of questions: *To what extent is water scarce? *To what extent is

water scarcity Water scarcity (closely related to water stress or water crisis) is the lack of fresh water resources to meet the standard water demand. There are two types of water scarcity. One is ''physical.'' The other is ''economic water scarcity''. Physic ...

and access a cause of poverty? *Who gets access to water and who does not? *How are such decisions made? *How efficiently is water used? *How can it be used more efficiently? *How can water related interventions (policy changes, institutional innovations, new technologies) help improve food security, livelihood resilience and

ecosystem service Ecosystem services are the various benefits that humans derive from ecosystems. The interconnected living and non-living components of the natural environment offer benefits such as pollination of crops, clean air and water, decomposition of wast ...

s? *What are the consequences (for different water users and uses at different scales) of introducing different kinds of changes?

References

External links

Andean Project

Basin Focal Project: The Indus-Gangetic River Basin
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