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This report takes stock of agriculture and water policy changes from 2009 to 2019 and assesses the alignment of these changes with relevant sections of the OECD Council Recommendation on Water and the 2017 G20 Agriculture Ministerial Action Plan on water and food security. The analysis builds on results from a 2019 survey on agriculture and water policy changes which gathered responses from 38 countries – including OECD countries, Costa Rica, Colombia, and Cabo Verde – and the European Union. A methodology was developed to convert survey responses into indices of alignment of policy changes with OECD and G20 recommendations. Results show that changes in water and agriculture policies from 2009 to 2019 were uneven across countries and investigated policy areas (water governance, water quality, water quantity and water risks), with some countries undertaking important reforms whereas others mainly improved existing policies. On average, alignment indices suggest that agriculture and water policies in responding countries progressed towards the OECD Council Recommendation on Water. In order to advance further, relatively water abundant countries should pay attention to their approach to manage water quantity and risks under climate change, all countries should consider improving their policies to reduce pollution from agriculture, and selected countries should consider making additional efforts to recover water charges and to use pricing instruments, in line with the OECD Council Recommendation on Water. Policy changes by responding G20 member countries have also been in the direction of the 2017 G20 Agriculture Ministerial Action Plan. However, some of these changes are partial, particularly those on water use efficiency and resilience, and those supporting responsible investment in agriculture and water.

La saisine porte sur l’évaluation des intérêts agronomiques et des risques des préparations phytopharmaceutiques (PPP) à base de substances actives de la famille des néonicotinoïdes (NN) et de leurs alternatives : il est demandé, pour les usages autorisés en France des PPP à base de NN, de réaliser une évaluation mettant en balance les risques et les bénéfices des PPP autorisées, ou des méthodes non chimiques de prévention ou de lutte. La demande porte également sur l’incidence économique et les éventuelles conséquences de mise en oeuvre pratique pour l’activité agricole, ainsi que les risques d’apparition de résistances parmi les organismes nuisibles (ON). Cette demande a pris place dans le contexte des débats parlementaires qui ont conduit au vote de la loi « Pour la reconquête de la biodiversité, de la nature et des paysages » le 8 août 2016 dont l’un des articles (article 125) porte sur l’interdiction de l’utilisation des PPP contenant une ou des substances actives de la famille des NN ainsi que des semences traitées avec ces produits à compter du 1er septembre 2018. L’article 125 prévoit également des dérogations à l’interdiction pouvant être accordées jusqu’au 1er juillet 2020 par arrêté conjoint des ministres chargés de l’agriculture, de l’environnement et de la santé. La loi prévoit que l’arrêté est pris sur la base d’un bilan établi par l’Anses qui compare les bénéfices et les risques liés aux usages des PPP contenant des NN autorisés en France avec ceux liés aux usages de produits de substitution ou aux méthodes alternatives disponibles. La loi indique que ce bilan porte sur les impacts sur l’environnement, notamment sur les pollinisateurs, sur la santé publique et sur l’activité agricole. Le présent avis constitue ce bilan.

This deliverable D3.2 aims at compiling the existing data, knowledge and policy framework on rural in the EU, so to provide an operational framework for SHERPA multi-actor platforms (MAPs) when they come at describing rural trends, challenges and opportunities in their respective areas. Deliverable: Working document. SHERPA: Sustainable Hub to Engage into Rural Policies with Actors, Project ID 862448, H2020 Call ID & Topic RUR-01-2018-2019–D: Rural society-science-policy hub International audience

RESEARCH FOR DEVELOPMENT (R4D) LEARNING SERIES 10; This report explores how women perceive participation and empowerment vis-a-vis access to water and other agricultural resources in the Tarai/Madhesh of Nepal. The report argues that gendered vulnerability is indeed intricately connected with other axes of difference, such as caste and economic status, despite women’s critical role in agricultural production and their active engagement in access to water and irrigation in agriculture. Overall, women’s well-being seems to have decreased as a consequence of male out-migration. However, there are women who have also become empowered in new ways, taking up enterprise opportunities.The authors point out that at the level of policy and external development interventions, a dominating narrative on women’s limited participation in agriculture being a result of ‘social norms’ exists. Public irrigation agencies have used this myth to absolve themselves of the responsibility for ensuring gender equality in program implementation.The report concludes that strengthening equitable irrigation user groups alongside capacity building for farmers and program implementers are critical measures for improving women’s access to irrigation and overall well-being. Women should be ensured meaningful participation, including leadership roles.Finally, this report recommends linking irrigation user groups to other income-generation schemes, and facilitating access to better credit, finance and agricultural inputs.; The Eastern Gangetic Plains of Nepal, known as the Tarai-Madhesh, have a deeply inequitable social structure. Poverty is deeply entrenched as a consequence of class inequalities, legacies from a feudal tax hierarchy and inequitable landlord–tenant relations. Deep-rooted gender disparities are endemic. In recent years, growing male out-migration has resulted in new patterns of gendered vulnerability, with women increasingly tasked with managing and accessing irrigation. While these women generally experience economic insecurity and increased work burdens, their experiences are highly dependent on their class, ethnicity and religion. In addition, women’s access to credit and state subsidies, as well as their capacity for engaging in enterprises and other activities, also determine the risks and opportunities they face.Understanding the realities of women in the Tarai-Madhesh, including the complex interrelations between the social, economic, historical and cultural factors that shape their lives, is a prerequisite for effective agricultural development programs and strategies.Therefore, this report explores how women perceive participation and empowerment vis-a-vis access to water and other agricultural resources. The authors draw on fieldwork carried out over 6 months in 2015 and 2016. The work focused on communities in two districts of the Tarai-Madhesh – Sunsari and Siraha – selected for this study due to their dependence on access to canal water and groundwater irrigation, respectively.The data indicate that gendered vulnerability is indeed intricately connected with other axes of difference, such as caste and economic status. As a result, many women’s well-being has decreased as a consequence of male out-migration, but some women have also become empowered in new ways, taking up enterprise opportunities and active roles in water user groups.However, in Sunsari district, women’s roles within water user associations for canals were found to be marginal and largely tokenistic. This is despite women’s critical role in agricultural production and their dependence on access to canal water. In Siraha district, women from poorer households without their own pumps faced challenges in accessing groundwater. However, the biggest challenges pertaining to groundwater access were identified as institutional weaknesses.At the level of policy and external development interventions, the authors identified a dominating narrative on women’s limited participation in agriculture being a result of ‘social norms’. Public irrigation agencies used this myth to absolve themselves of the responsibility for ensuring gender equality in program implementation. It was found to divert attention away from gender discrepancies within public irrigation agencies, thereby preventing a reflexive and critical effort on greater gender equality within the bureaucracy.The authors conclude that strengthening equitable irrigation user groups, along with capacity building for farmers and program implementers, is critical for improving women’s access to irrigation and overall well-being. Women should be ensured meaningful, rather than tokenistic, participation, including leadership roles. It is recommended to link irrigation user groups to other income-generation schemes and let cooperation across groups facilitate access to better credit, finance and agricultural inputs.

Synthesis report. ENPARD South initiative (European Commission)

This study explores feasibility of regional rice market integration by examining the impacts on production and trade, with a specific focus on the adjustment impacts for rice producers. It seeks to set out policy measures required to better integrate the rice markets of Association of Southeast Nations (ASEAN) countries and the role that trade policy can play to help the agricultural sector adjust to pressures created from freer trade in rice within this region. While regional rice market integration can deliver more rice at lower prices to the regions consumers, this study finds significant adjustments to the rice sectors will be required in Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines. However, opportunities through lowering tariff barriers with existing key trading partners of free trade agreements has the scope to create more employment and value adding opportunities in all agricultural sectors to offset the losses from regional rice market integration. The study suggests a number of measures are necessary to build trust in regional markets to allow rice market integration to take place. This includes an agreement to ban export restrictions. Furthermore, while broader trade reforms will help create new opportunities for agricultural sectors across the ASEAN region, flanking policies and investments in the enabling environment are still required for the sectors to take full advantage of these opportunities.

Despite improvements over the last decade or more, India still accounts for a large proportion of the global prevalence of maternal and child undernutrition. We use a cluster-randomized controlled design and two waves of panel data on more than 2000 households from Bihar to analyse the impact on diet quality and anthropometry of a health and nutrition intervention delivered through an at-scale women’s self-help group (SHGs) platform. We find that the intervention had small but significant impacts on women and children’s dietary diversity, with the main impacts coming from an increase in the consumption of fruits and vegetables and dairy, however, it had no impact on women’s body mass index. We identify several potential pathways to impact. To the extent that SHGs can effect broad-based social change, their current reach to millions of women makes them a powerful platform for accelerating improvements in maternal and child health and nutrition outcomes.

Le littoral et la gestion de l’eau : deux dimensions qui participent de la problématisation et des transformations des activités agricoles sur de nombreux territoires, en particulier en Bretagne où se déroulent les études de cas retenues dans Parchemins. Ainsi, trois des cinq sites d’étude sont concernés historiquement par d’importantes proliférations d’algues vertes qui matérialisent les continuités biophysiques entre les bassins versants et les milieux côtiers: les baies de la Forêt et Douarnenez (Finistère) et la baie de Lannion (Côtes d’Armor). Les recherches interdisciplinaires menées par les équipes de l’UMR Sols, Agro et hydrosystème, Spatialisation (UMR 1069 SAS) et le Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire Sciences, Innovations, Sociétés (UMR 1326 LISIS) sur ces sites depuis les années 2000 sont à l’origine de la proposition de déplacement du regard qui fonde Parchemins, depuis la gestion de l’eau et des impacts environnementaux de l’agriculture vers les tensions qui traversent l’activité agricole en zone littorale et à ses transformations. Ce déplacement explique le choix d’ouvrir deux terrains supplémentaires sur lesquels la problématique de gestion des pollutions diffuses d’origine agricole est moins prégnante, mais dont les caractéristiques sont emblématiques de grandes transformations qui traversent l’agriculture en zone littorale: la spécialisation dans une production légumière d’exportation, historiquement inféodée au cordon littoral en Bretagne Nord (site du Goëlo-Presqu’île de Lézardrieux); et le double mouvement de déprise et d’orientation multifonctionnelle de l’agriculture qui caractérise les territoires connaissant un très fort développement touristique (Presqu’île de Rhuys).Le programme Paroles et chemins de l’agriculture littorale(Parchemins), porté par l’Institut national de la recherche agronomique (INRA, devenu depuis INRAE), a reçu pour la période 2016-2021le soutien de la Fondation de France viason programme Quels littoraux pour demain?(devenu depuis Les futurs du littoral et de la mer).Celui-cipoursuit trois objectifs principaux: ●Améliorer les connaissances du fonctionnement des espaces littoraux●Diffuser ces recherches auprès des citoyens et de leurs représentants, ainsi qu’auprès des gestionnaires (pêcheurs, conchyliculteurs, professionnels du tourisme, décideurs...)●Promouvoir les dispositifs de recherche participative impliquant les acteurs locaux.La Région Bretagne finance également depuis 2016 Parchemins au titre des recherches en appui aux politiques de l’eau; elle a renouvelé son soutien au programme pour l’année 2019.