Matching Supply and Demand to Guide Water Reallocation and Storage
The Securing Water in Agriculture (SWAG) tool turns geospatial data into smarter irrigation decisions. It compares spatial and temporal water availability against crop water requirements across cropland, then models two levers to close the gap: reallocating surplus water to nearby deficit areas by gravity and storing wet-season runoff for the dry period. The result is optimized irrigation supply and more sustainable, resilient farming.
SWAG was co-developed with The Nature Conservancy under IWMI's Digital Innovations for Water Secure Africa (DIWASA) project and the CGIAR Sustainable Farming Science Program.
The tool addresses a common challenge in agricultural water management: water can be over-applied in some locations and seasons while nearby farming areas experience shortages. SWAG helps identify where these surpluses and deficits occur and assesses how existing water resources can be managed more effectively before additional external water supplies are considered.
Using a spatial decision-support framework, SWAG maps water surplus and deficit, calculates the volumes involved, identifies opportunities for water reallocation, assesses runoff storage potential and compares different intervention scenarios.
SWAG has been applied across 119 Water Resource User Associations in Kenya's Central Highlands Ecoregion. The next phase will validate the tool's satellite- and model-based estimates through field observations and work with local stakeholders to support its development into a near real-time decision-support system.
Designed for water resource managers, Water Resource User Associations, catchment authorities, researchers and development partners, SWAG provides a shared evidence base for making more informed decisions about agricultural water allocation, storage and use.
