The Application of GIS as an Assessment and Planning Tool for Smallholder Irrigation Market Development: a case study from the West African Sahel

摘要

This article outlines a regional-scale assessment methodology using geographic information systems (GIS) as a source of value-added information to identify and prioritize areas within Africa where an irrigation and market-based poverty alleviation model could potentially be applied to benefit poor, small-scale farmers. This assessment methodology, Poverty Reduction through Irrigation and Smallholder Markets (PRISM), is being piloted by a US-based private voluntary organization to assist development organizations to better target and identify smallholder communities for pro-poor market-led interventions that will ultimately boost farm income and move large numbers of the rural poor out of poverty. The Sahel region of West Africa is presented as a case study for the piloting of a GIS scoping methodology.