Water stewardship project in Lerma Toluca Minor Basin, Estado de Mexico, Michoacan

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Countries:	Mexico
Basins:	North Pacific (455) (Rio Lerma - Guadalajara)
Project SDGs: Includes Sustainable Development Goals from the project and its locations.	Sustainable Agriculture (SDG 2.4) Water Use Efficiency (SDG 6.4) Stakeholder Participation (SDG 6.b) Sustainable Production (SDG 12.4) Climate Resilience and Adaptation (SDG 13.1)
Project Tags: Includes tags from the project and its locations.	Drought Management Dairy and Livestock Groundwater Pesticide and Fertilizer Management Water Funds Sustainable Withdrawals Women & Water Replenishment
Progress to Date:	This project will start on July 2023 From 2023-2028: 520,000 m3 of saved water in 1,300 hectares own my local farmers
Services Needed:	Financial support
Desired Partners:	Business Business Association NGO / Civil Society
Language:	English
Start & End Dates:	Jul. 01, 2023 » Ongoing
Project Website:	kilimo.com/compensacion-de-agua
Contextual Condition(s):	Quantity, PHYSICAL: Water scarcity or drought, PHYSICAL: Groundwater management
Additional Benefits:	Better / more data on river basin conditions, Basin stakeholder mapping, Long-term partnership(s) created
Beneficiaries:	Manufacturers, Ecosystems, Agricultural growers
Planning & Implementation Time:	More than 3 years
Financial Resources:	Between $100,000 - $500,000 USD
Primary Funding Source:	corporate
Project Challenges:	Other
Project Source:	User
Profile Completion:	87%

Project Overview

This project aims to increase agricultural water use efficiency and productivity, reduce water demand, and protect groundwater and surface water resources in the Lerma/Toluca Basin of Mexico.

A farmer's retention plan centered on adopting and renewing irrigation management practices has been devised throughout the project's implementation, scheduled to conclude in 2028. As part of this program, farmers are encouraged to participate in ongoing training sessions and receive economic incentives for reducing their water consumption. A record of active farmers who utilize our service will be maintained each year.

The project will support expanded applications of IoT satellite moisture and irrigation management systems on 1,300 ha of private irrigated family farms to decrease water pumping/diversion. The Kilimo project team uses a Big Data solution that includes a web-based app, annual subscription fee, satellite data, crop soil moisture tests, and measurement of precipitation and irrigation inputs to provide real time irrigation demand information. The technology does not require any hardware to be installed at the farm level and supports tailored irrigation scheduling for a variety of high value crops.

The following selection criteria were used to identify farmers who were best suited to participate in the program to meet specific use requirements for Kilimo’s irrigation monitoring platform and support comparison of water use rates before and after deployment:

Fields must be located in the Lerma/Toluca basin.
The farmer must possess irrigation records.
The farmer must be available to meet with Kilimo’s agronomy team.
The farm must have a dependable source of water available for irrigation.
Kilimo will deploy the IoT irrigation management system on 1,300 total ha over four irrigation seasons starting in July 2023.

It has been shown that less than 10% of farmers worldwide use (or have access to) technology to guide water application. Using Kilimo's technology, farmers have reduced their water withdrawal from the surface and groundwater sources by at least 13%. Additionally, less water withdrawal represents less pumping costs and energy for farmers and, therefore, a reduction in carbon emissions from electric power use.

Project Videos

Project Files

Pre Project Lerma Toluca basin English (216.1 kb)

Primary Contact

Carmen Guerrero Sotelo
Business Development Manager México
Kilimo

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Basin and/or Contextual Conditions:	Quantity, PHYSICAL: Water scarcity or drought, PHYSICAL: Groundwater management
Project Benefits:	Better / more data on river basin conditions, Basin stakeholder mapping, Long-term partnership(s) created
Indirect or Direct Beneficiaries:	Manufacturers, Ecosystems, Agricultural growers
Months & Implementing:	More than 3 years
Financial Resources:	Between $100,000 - $500,000 USD
Primary Funding Source:	Corporate funding
Challenges:	Other

Project Narrative

Project Timeline (Preliminary) July 2023: the project is confirmed by the corporation. August 2023 - February 2024: Kilimo signs contracts with the farmers that will be involved in the project. March 2024 - December 2024: The Kilimo IoT irrigation management system would be deployed starting at the beginning of the winter 2024 crop season. The year of initial volumetric benefit claim is expected to be 2024 Monitoring and Maintenance: Kilimo will verify the deployment of the IoT irrigation management system on the farms in the Lerma/Toluca basin. They will monitor the water savings based on the baseline water usage from the previous five crop seasons (2018-2023), effective rainfall, and water usage after project implementation. Confirmed water savings for the previous crop season will be available in December of the following year. 2028: Project completion The volumetric water benefit is calculated based on the reduced withdrawal by individual farmers in the Lerma basin due to the elimination of over-irrigation and associated losses as a result of improved irrigation regimes. This volume of water can be made available for other water uses, which will contribute to basin water resilience. Input data and assumptions supporting the volumetric benefit calculation, which are listed below, were provided by BEF in partnership with Kilimo and obtained through literature. Project is expected to conserve 400 cubic meters of water per hectare per crop season with Kilimo IoT irrigation management system, based on analysis of pilot projects. 1,300 ha will be outfitted with Kilimo IoT irrigation management systems. These systems will operate over five crop seasons, starting in March 2024. Data from the five previou crop seasons to project implementation will be used to calculate baseline rainfall and irrigation rates. Post project rainfall and irrigation data will be compared to the baseline rates to quantify changes in water consumption that take place as a result of the project. In the event that a farmer is not able to provide all the information needed to calculate the water savings, Kilimo will use standard regional crop, precipitation, and weather data to perform annual calculations. Kilimo will determine a baseline and post-project monitoring data to calculate the total volumetric water benefit of the project. The expected total volumetric water benefit from the project is shown below. Use of Kilimo’s IoT irrigation management system on 1,300 ha of farmland each crop season. Area of precision agriculture improvements = 1,300 ha Water savings for farmland with Kilimo IoT irrigation management system = 400 m3/ha/crop season Reduced withdrawal = Water savings = 1,300 ha * 400 m3/ha/crop season=520,000 m3 Volumetric Benefit (Preliminary) The irrigation season in the Lerma/Toluca basin occurs over four calendar years. Therefore, the volumetric benefits in the project start year (2023) and project end year (2028) will be proportional for the portion of the irrigation season falling within that calendar year.