Please join us for an E-IPER dissertation defense by Cesar Lopez: "Investments, Infrastructure, and Evidence: Insights from Irrigation for Sustainable Development".

In-person: Y2E2 299

Virtual: Zoom webinar

ABSTRACT

Irrigated agriculture is a cornerstone of global food production and rural livelihoods, and millions of dollars continue to flow into expanding and upgrading irrigation infrastructure worldwide. These investments are expected to drive economic growth, alleviate poverty, and ensure food security, all while strengthening adaptation and resilience to climate change and safeguarding the environment. Yet despite its centrality, the contributions of irrigation investments to sustainable development remain poorly understood, raising pressing questions: where and how much has been invested in irrigation, and are these investments achieving their intended objectives? 

My dissertation examines the role of public irrigation investments in shaping agricultural and local economic development in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), integrating diverse forms of evidence through a causal inference lens. In the first chapter, I present a systematic global analysis of 21st-century irrigation development efforts in LMICs, mapping the scale and design of aid-related investments and surveying the causal evidence on irrigation programs and policies. The rest of my dissertation turns to Bolivia, a country with one of the most ambitious irrigation agendas in Latin America over the past three decades. In the second chapter, I use primary data to evaluate the short-term impacts of a national irrigation program on household-level agricultural and socio-economic indicators. In the third chapter, I draw on administrative and satellite data to assess the dynamic effects of Bolivia’s broader portfolio of irrigation investments on community-level indicators of local economic activity. Taken together, this dissertation highlights how interdisciplinary approaches to evidence can transform irrigation from an uncertain promise into a tested pathway for sustainable and equitable development, offering new insights to guide future policy and investment decisions.