Small-scale, rain-fed subsistence agriculture and pastoralism represent the major activity for Africa. For Mali, this represents about 80% of the population employed by the agricultural sector and contributes to about 42% of the Gross domestic product (GDP). The overreliance on rainfall, competing for the most valuable lands, the increasing scarcity of water, the lack of innovative technologies and infrastructure has made the agriculture sector vulnerable to climatic and non-climatic risks including an increase in the number of land conflicts. In addition, inadequate access to affordable energy has also limited social opportunities for the poor communities, especially in rural areas of Mali. Water Energy and Food (WEF) Nexus solutions such as agrivoltaics are increasingly being deployed to improve access to water for agricultural uses, improve yields and incomes, reduce drudgery especially for women, enhancing resilience and microclimate, improve land use efficiency and food security. This innovative approach has opened new prospects to improve the quality of life for people as well as their environment as a whole. Agrivoltaics is rapidly gaining popularity in many countries but not yet in African countries. This paper presents a feasibility analysis, recommendations and future directions of agrivoltaics in Mali and in Africa as a whole. Furthermore, applications of agrivoltaic systems are discussed in terms of their socio-economic and environmental effects, emphasizing also the necessity of integrative thinking in the process of strategic planning for achieving security in water, energy and food.

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The shift to electric mobility lags pursued goals. In this article we analyze the consumer's perspective and examine, which technology attributes and person‐related factors influence electric vehicle (EV) adoption, and whether differences in person‐related factors affect vehicle attribute importance. A total of 1922 participants took part in a Germany‐wide, representative study comprising a questionnaire measuring person‐related factors and a discrete choice experiment determining the importance of technology‐specific attributes. Results from the choice experiment for all vehicles classes reveal that purchase price was the most important vehicle attribute. Less important for the choice of a small‐sized vehicle were in descending order: range, fuel costs, fuel type, refueling infrastructure, CO2‐emissions and CO2‐tax. Regression analyses further indicate that subjective norms, collective efficacy, technological risk attitude and perceived information were the strongest predictors for purchase intention in the questionnaire. Participants showing high values on these factors also weighted attribute importance in the choice experiment differently, but throughout favoring EVs, than participants with low values on these factors. Factors that are disadvantageous for EV, such as range and price, were de‐emphasized by these respondents. In addition, preference shares for battery electric vehicles were more than twice as high as for conventional vehicles in three out of four groups with high values. Socio‐psychological factors, therefore, seem to relativize the impact of mere techno‐economic factors on electric vehicle adoption. Hence, we recommend that these factors receive greater attention in the discourse on policy measures.

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