The report is aimed at professionals, international development agencies and development NGOs. The authors take some time to explain the principles of manual pumping and the reasons why different designs are needed to provide practical options for farmers. The report provides a positive answer to the question. The evidence is that the treadle pump is a technology that can offer those who invest in it good returns. Much of the agriculture in Africa is smallholder based and this technology offers individuals or groups of individuals the opportunity to respond to family and market needs without government intervention.
Treadle pumps are successful and are an important step to improving rural incomes throughout Africa.
Irrigated agriculture contributes about 40 percent of the global food production. This comes mainly from about 260 million hectares of irrigated lands, of which about two thirds are formal irrigation schemes. Many formal irrigation schemes are performing inefficiently for a number of reasons, among which the poor performance of irrigation institutions is one. It is this realisation that prompted the World Bank to initiate, among others, action on Reforming Irrigation Institutions . The objective of this initiative is to improve the performance of irrigation management in projects by increasing the efficiency, transparency and accountability of the organisations in charge of providing irrigation services and increase the participation of users and the private sector .