Global Change and Investments in Smallholder Irrigation for Food and Nutrition Security in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

Investments in irrigation contribute to poverty reduction and enhance food security. This paper considers irrigation investments more broadly in the context of rural–urban linkages and thus examines rural irrigation schemes and peri-urban and urban agriculture using freshwater, groundwater and wastewater. We present case studies from East, West and Southern Africa, while focusing on the imperative of smallholders and of food security and nutrition. Evidence from Big Data and telecoupling show that, amid global change and sustainability issues, irrigation development strengthens connections between humans and nature with notable benefits to food security. Transforming investments to feed the future generation require priority investments in irrigation, solar energy for groundwater pumping, groundwater development policy, and integration of peri-urban and urban agriculture into food systems. Equally important will be no-regret interventions in wastewater reuse, water storage and groundwater buffer, micro-irrigation, and wholesale reconfiguration of farming systems, through anticipatory investments, to safeguard food security and sustainability into the distant future.

Modeling the effects of alternative crop–livestock management scenarios on important ecosystem services for smallholder farming from a landscape perspective

“…From our survey work, we found that 2 out of 140 smallholders irrigated. However, some initiatives show promise in making irrigation feasible for smallholder farmers -for example, through public investments in South Africa, public-private partnerships in Zimbabwe, and SI business models in Tanzania (Hanjra and Williams, 2020). Whether irrigation is feasible also depends on regional water availability.…”

Perception of climate change and coping strategies among smallholder irrigators in Zimbabwe

“…Globally, smallholder irrigation schemes were developed to enhance the livelihoods of rural households (Mdemu et al, 2020), improve food security (Masasi and Ng'ombe, 2019), raise farm household income (Masasi and Ng'ombe, 2019), alleviate poverty (Phakathi, 2022), and agricultural transformation (Masasi and Ng'ombe, 2019). This development was predicted to be stimulated by high-impact pathways including higher crop yield, higher food production, and higher income (Hanjra and Williams, 2020). Nonetheless, there is abundant literature (Burney and Naylor, 2012;Fanadzo and Ncube, 2018;Hanjra and Williams, 2020;Mdemu et al, 2020) indicating that a majority of the smallholder irrigation schemes in SSA and especially in Zimbabwe have not performed according to the expectations as they are characterized by poor maintenance and dilapidated infrastructure.…”

“…This development was predicted to be stimulated by high-impact pathways including higher crop yield, higher food production, and higher income (Hanjra and Williams, 2020). Nonetheless, there is abundant literature (Burney and Naylor, 2012;Fanadzo and Ncube, 2018;Hanjra and Williams, 2020;Mdemu et al, 2020) indicating that a majority of the smallholder irrigation schemes in SSA and especially in Zimbabwe have not performed according to the expectations as they are characterized by poor maintenance and dilapidated infrastructure. According to Harrison (2018), farmer-led, externally engineered, and induced schemes models are more complex, costly, outdated, mismanaged, and have high failure rates.…”

A renewable energy-centred research agenda for planning and financing Nexus development objectives in rural sub-Saharan Africa

“…The input of electricity provides a foundational building block upon which rural development becomes possible [44][45][46]. Reliable and sustainable electricity access enables pumping groundwater or stored rainwater, which when used for irrigation has significant potential for contributing to closing the yield gap [47][48][49]. For instance, Banerjee et al [23] estimate that by 2030 power demand from agriculture for both irrigation and milling in SSA could double from current levels if rainfed areas with economic potential would be equipped for irrigation, reaching about 9 GW.…”