The CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF) has worked in the Ganges River basin since 2003. From 2010 to 2014, its research for development activities focused on the southwest and south-central coastal zone of Bangladesh with some additional work in the coastal zone of West Bengal, India. In most polders the primary limiting factors are poor water management due to the lack of systematic operation of sluice gates; lack of separation of lands of varying elevations; and siltation of the irrigation and drainage canals within polders.

In 2009, the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF) set out to “improve governance and management of rainwater and small water infrastructure in the Limpopo basin to raise productivity, reduce poverty, and improve livelihoods resilience.” Over the following four years, CPWF, led by the Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN) and partners, coordinated five inter-connected research- for-development projects in the basin. The program

Three major river basins flow out of Ethiopia into Sudan, constituting the Eastern Nile basin (the White Nile flows from the south). These are the Tekeze-Atbara flowing out of northern Ethiopia, the Baro-Akoba- Sobat flowing from southern Ethiopia, and the Blue Nile (Abay) sandwiched between the other two. The Blue Nile Basin, called the Abay in Ethiopia, is the largest branch of the Nile draining the Ethiopian highlands. It covers an estimated area of 311,437 square kilometers and is shared by Ethiopia and Sudan. It joins the White Nile in Khartoum, Sudan.