Limited access to water, droughts, floods and other climatic conditions are major challenges to food security in Ghana. Over 70% of smallholder farmers in the country practice rainfed agriculture, which is highly vulnerable to rainfall variability. Flooding and waterlogging of farmlands limit land use and crop productivity.

This working paper was based on the study on multiple uses of small reservoirs in the Volta River Basin of Burkina Faso. The study was conducted in communities using five small reservoirs in Yatenga Province.

This paper focuses on the on-farm treatment of waste water, particularly in West Africa, and argues that while although it can hardly replace conventional treatment, it can contribute to risk reduction, especially if combined with other barriers such as safe irrigation practices and post-harvest crop washing.

The Multi-stakeholder Policy Formulation and Action Planning approach was applied in the context of a multi-city study to influence and/or change policies that govern urban agriculture practices in three African and two Asian countries.