Smallholder farmers need improved stake in Nile's development

Seed Daily via SPX: A new book finds that the Nile river, together with its associated tributaries and rainfall, could provide 11 countries - including a new country, South Sudan, and the drought-plagued countries of the Horn of Africa - with enough water to support a vibrant agriculture sector, but that the poor in the region who rely on the river for their food and incomes risk missing out on these benefits without effective and inclusive water management policies.

The Nile River Basin: Water, Agriculture, Governance and Livelihoods, published by the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF), incorporates new research and analysis to provide the most comprehensive analysis yet of the water, agriculture, governance and poverty challenges facing policymakers in the countries that rely on the water flowing through one of Africa's most important basins. The book also argues that better cooperation among the riparian countries is required to share this precious resource.

"This book will change the way people think about the world's longest river," said Dr. Vladimir Smakhtin, water availability and access theme leader at the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and one of the book's co-authors....