ABSTRACT

Irrigation and improved agricultural inputs have been promoted by the New African Green Revolution to close yield gaps in Sub-Saharan Africa. Can this approach coexist with local indigenous irrigation systems? We examine an irrigation scheme financed by both the Kenyan and Canadian Red Cross and put in place in 2015 in Marakwet, Kenya, where a gravity irrigation system has been operated by local people for three centuries. Grounded on ethnographic data, we show how the current rhetoric and operationalization of top-down irrigation projects disregard, instead of harnessing, local agricultural knowledge which would ensure sustainable farming in the context of resource-poor and climate-challenged communities.

摘要

新非洲绿色革命促进了灌溉和改善农业投入，以缩小撒哈拉以南非洲的单产差距。这种方法可以与当地的本地灌溉系统共存吗？我们研究了由肯尼亚和加拿大红十字会资助的灌溉计划，该计划于2015年在肯尼亚的马拉克韦特实施，当地人民使用重力灌溉系统已有三个世纪之久。基于人种学数据，我们将显示当前自上而下的灌溉项目的言论和运作方式如何无视而不是利用当地的农业知识，这些知识将确保在资源匮乏和气候变化严峻的社区中实现可持续农业。