Pittock, JamieBjornlund, HenningStirzaker, Richardvan Rooyen, Andre2021-05-262021-05-260790-0627http://hdl.handle.net/1885/233792Significant expansion of irrigated agriculture is planned in Africa, though existing smallholder schemes perform poorly. Research at six schemes in Mozambique, Tanzania and Zimbabwe shows that a range of problems are exacerbated by poor management, with limited market linkages leading to underutilization and a lack of profit. Improving sustainability of these complex systems will require: multiple interventions at different scales; investing in people and institutions as much as hardware; clarity in governments’ objectives for their smallholder irrigation schemes; appropriate business models to enable farmers; and better market linkages.This work was supported by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research under [grant number FSC-2013-006].application/pdfen-AU© 2017 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/Africaagriculturegovernancemarket accesssmallholder irrigationwater productivity201710.1080/07900627.2017.13247682020-11-23Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License