The last session by Mr. Satya Murty and Dr. Rajsekhar Reddy aimed to bring forth and focus on the experiences and learning of the participants during the workshop. The participants were required to state their learning in three areas: institutional, social benefits and technical knowledge. These were shared with other participants and the emerging key issues were discussed. Since the participants were from different countries with varying political, social, economic and cultural set-up, they were encouraged to specifically focus on their priority learning, which they deemed desirable, fit and appropriate to be replicated in their respective countries and the types of problems/constraints they foresaw in doing the same.

Learning: The learning shared by the participants in three primary areas are:

a) Institutional

• Farmer-NGO-Government co-ordination/support/linkages
• Partnership with NGOs
• Co-ordination and communication between donor, NGOs and government
• GMC, HUN, NGO level networking
• Institutional relationships/sharing
• Vital role of NGOs in community mobilization
• Sharing of resources
• Strong project support
• Fully NGO led project
• Collaboration with PNGOs
• Complete decentralization
• Coordinated hierarchical development from grass-root to government level
• Community based bottom up approach
• Accountability and transparency at every level
• Strong coordination between government, NGOs and stakeholders
• Strong institutional arrangement at government and grass-root level that can be replicated in every country

Summary by Satya Murty: Key issues

• Coordination
• Linkages
• Resource sharing
• Transparency
• Networking
• Decentralization
• Well-organised
• Strong partnership
• Possibility of being replicated

b) Social benefits

• Empowerment of farmers
• Development of farmers’ competence and confidence
• Awareness of the farmers of their responsibilities
• Interest to work together
• Good use of folk art form-kalajatha
• Friendship created between farmers and NGOs
• Readiness of the project to share experiences with outside world
• Boost to other infrastructure-related activities such as roads and other facilities
• Creation of social responsibilities
• Capacity to work together
• Value to gender issues/gender equity
• Social sharing
• Farmer-centered approach
• Application of indigenous knowledge
• Knowledge dissemination
• Decision making
• Community development/mutual respect/commitment
• Improvement of economic condition of farmers
• Creating enabling environment
• Food security
• Conservation of resources
• Social management of groundwater
• Social capital/social responsibilities
• Sharing knowledge
• Learning new skills and creating capacity
• Collaborative action for common goal
• Sensitizing new issues such as gender, environmental etc.
• Poverty reduction/income generation
• Real benefits to farmers
• Decision making on cropping pattern
• Gender and its direct relation with groundwater: similarity with situation in Yemen

Summary by Satya Murty: Key Issues

• Empowerment
• Awareness
• Gender equity
• Increase in farmers’ confidence
• Decision making
• Conservation of resources
• Poverty reduction and income generation

c) Technical Knowledge

• Resource generation
• Mapping
• Hydro-eco analysis
• Participatory Hydrological Monitoring (PHM)
• Use of water-saving techniques (drip and sprinkler)
• New initiatives (vermicompost, organic farming and SRI)
• Ability to carry out crop water budgeting and crop planning
• Linking farmers to information technology
• Capacity building
• Simplifying technical knowledge
• Use of indigenous knowledge
• Practicing sustainable agriculture in simple and appropriate manner
• Farmers’ ability to interpret the data
• Farmer water schools
• Shift from high value crops to other crops using minimum water
• Convincing farmers to take necessary action
• Effective training process and training skills
• Farmer as scientist

Summary by Satya Murty: Key issues

• Mapping
• Resource inventory
• Participatory Hydrological Monitoring (PHM)
• Farmer Water Schools (FWS)
• Crop Water Budgeting (CWB)
• Analysis of data
• Farmer as scientist

Priority learning that has the potential for replication in participants’ countries and constraints they foresee:

1) Abdulla Mohammed Al Thary-Yemen:

Learning

1. Decentralization/farmers’ participation in planning an implementation process
2. Gender active participation/gender equity
3. Farmer as scientist

Constraints

Changing mind-set

2) Ahmad Dehghan-Iran

Learning

1. Groundwater management by farmers
2. Decentralization: Government-farmer, Farmer water schools, Groundwater users’ associations

Constraints

Groundwater is privatized

3) Phanuel Matseshe-Kenya

Learning

1. Use of water-saving irrigation methods
2. Organic farming practices
3. Linkages between stakeholders and other institutions

Constraints

1. Enabling environment to get common platform
2. Production of relevant material
3. Gender equity

4) Azeneth Schuler-Brazil

Learning

1. Institutional arrangement
2. Self-learning methodology
3. Relationship between the farmers, NGOs and experts in knowledge sharing

5) Myint Aung-Myanmar

Learning

1. Coordination
2. Integrated way of water conservation
3. Demand based management

Constraints

Coordination and cooperation among various ministries

6) Pronmongkol Chidchob-Thailand

Learning

1. Strong organization of farmers
2. Farmer as scientist
3. Strong partnership between NGOs
4. Strong partnership between government agencies
5. Importance of farmers’ understanding of hydrological cycle

Constraint

1. Dependency of farmers on the government
2. Low level of education among farmers
3. NGOs in Thailand only consider conservation and do not share or coordinate
4. Too many government agencies and lack of coordination among them

7) Youngyos Neamsub-Thailand

Learning

1. Forming organizations
2. Institutional arrangement
3. Use of crop water budgeting
4. Water-saving methods like drip, sprinkler, mulching and vermin-compost

8) Babatunde Oloko-Nigeria

Learning

1. Capacity building
2. Partnership with NGOs
3. Reversing the top-down decision making process

Constraints

1. Weak institutional arrangement and capacity
2. Top-down decision making process
3. Lack of political will and interest
4. Absence of NGOs in groundwater management
5. Absence of gender equity
6. Cultural diversity

9) Fadhl Ali Saleh Al-Nozaily-Yemen

Learning

1. Farmer water schools
2. Institutional arrangement
3. Module visualization
4. Knowledge simplification
5. NGO formation
6. Enabling environment

Constraints

Understanding of IWRM

10) Ebitimi Tawari-Nigeria

Learning

1. Better working of NGOs

Constraints

1. Lack of coordination among institutions
2. Top-down approach
3. Brief-case NGOs

11) Mbuyi Kalombo-DRC

Learning

1. Change in practice
2. Partnership among NGOs

12) Judi Mkude-Tanzania

Learning

1. Encouraging the farmers to collect and display the information
2. Forming farmers’ groups
3. Encouraging farmers to use water efficiently

13) Andrew Ayeni-Nigeria

Learning

1. Transparent and accountable NGOs
2. Farmer as scientist
3. Enthusiasm on the part of community to participate

Constraints

1. Good governance
2. Poverty
3. Inappropriate use of professionals
4. Lack of coordination

14) Hamisi Mzoba-Kenya

Learning

1. Awareness creation
2. Mainstreaming of water concepts
3. Water budgeting
4. Demand side management of groundwater

Constraints

1. No support from the government

15) Kinley Dorji-Bhutan

Learning

1. Coordination
2. Farmer as scientist
3. Institutional arrangement

Constraints

1. Very high farmer illiteracy rate

16) Samuel Contreras- Philippines

Learning

1. Institutional arrangement
2. Farmer as scientist

Constraints

1. Availability of resources
2. Priority of problems
3. Government desires quick results