Land and Water Days
The aim of Land and Water Days is to increase awareness of the role of sustainable land and water management in improving local livelihoods.
FAO organizes Land and Water Days in coordination with the International Fund for Agricultural Development and the World Food Programme. Land and Water Days are opportunities for exchanging innovative approaches and lessons learned on sustainable land, soil and water management among practitioners, country representatives and other stakeholders and for promoting the uptake of best practices.
Land and Waters Days have been held in 2012, 2013 and 2015.
Objectives:
- Sharing lessons across projects and activities with a strong land and water component
- Promoting the use of existing methodologies, guidelines and tools in support to projects design, implementation and performance and impact;
- Understanding causes for failures, knowledge gaps in project design and implementation approaches and working out practical modalities for more effective technical support to field projects at various spatial scales;
- Discussing trends in land and water management including irrigation across regions and implications for activities on the ground; and
- Moving towards strategies and mechanisms for effective, sustainable and people-centered approaches to land,water use, management and tenure.
Background and rationale:
- The need to develop new models of sustainable intensification of our agriculture based on limited and fragile land and water resources, while integrating resilience building and adaptability;
- The need to improve performance of field projects in land and water management in terms of their sustainability, effectiveness and livelihood benefits, and to learn from and replicate successful projects;
- The weak linkage between available technical knowledge and its effective application in the field, with limited mutual interactions and poor feedback mechanisms;
- The growing concerns related to increasingly scarce natural resources, exacerbated by rising concerns about climate change, and the need for appropriate responses in terms of soil and water management practices;
- The need to develop new models of sustainable intensification based on resilience building and adaptability of farming systems and communities.
