Solar-based irrigation systems as a game changer to improve agricultural practices in sub-Sahara Africa: A case study from Mali

Abstract

IntroductionIn rainfed agricultural systems, sustainable and efficient water management practices are key to improved agricultural productivity and natural resource management. The agricultural system in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) relies heavily on the availability of rainfall. With the erratic and unreliable rainfall pattern associated with poor and fragile soils, agricultural productivity has remained very low over the years. Much of the SSA agricultural land has been degraded with low fertility as a result of ongoing cultivation and wind and water erosion. This has resulted in an increased food shortage due to the ever-increasing population and land degradation. Better agricultural and nutritional security are further hampered by the lack of reliable access to the available water resources in the subsurface hydrological system.MethodsThis study used socio-economic data from 112 farm households and Boolean and Fuzzy methods to understand farmers' perceptions and identify suitable areas to implement Solar Based Irrigation Systems (SBISs) in the agro-ecologies of Bougouni and Koutiala districts of southern Mali.Results and discussionResults revealed that the usage of SBISs has been recent (4.5 years), majorly (77%) constructed by donor-funded projects mainly for domestic water use and livestock (88%). With regards to irrigation, vegetable production was the dominant water use (60%) enabling rural farm households to gain over 40% of extra household income during the dry season. Results further showed that 4,274 km2 (22%) of the total land area for the Bougouni district, and 1,722 km2 (18%) of the Koutiala district are suitable for solar-based irrigation. The affordability of solar panels in many places makes SBISs to be an emerging climate-smart technology for most rural Malian populations.

Restoring degraded landscapes and sustaining livelihoods: sustainability assessment (cum-review) of integrated landscape management in sub-Saharan Africa

“…Socio-economic data from 112 farm households in the nine innovation sites in Bougouni and Koutiala enabled us to understand that water productivity was consistently higher in farms treated with ILM practices (Table 3). For example, solar based irrigation systems enabled local communities to increase household vegetable consumption by 55% and household incomes by 40% (Birhanu et al, 2023). Other studies conducted in the innovation sites at the plot level further enabled the understanding and usefulness of farm-based intervention practices, such as vegetable sack gardens to increase household income and nutrition (Badolo et al, 2022;Govoeyi et al, 2022;Tignegre et al, 2022).…”

“…Mismatch of political cycles and the absence of proper restoration objectives were identified as scaling challenges in the ILM practices in Ecuador (Wiegant et al, 2020). In Ethiopia and Mali, successful restoration practices are documented from specific localities by specific studies with little luck in collecting long-term research data that supports designing and targeting sustainable action plans in the face of current and future climate challenges (Abera et al, 2023;Birhanu et al, 2023).…”

Biobased silicon and biobased silica: two production routes whose time has come

“…This requires to start (or to re-start) polysilicon production for domestic solar cell manufacturing in all major economies: both in the economically developed countries, where it was once produced at small rate for the microelectronic industry, and in rapidly developing large countries in the global South including India, Brazil, the Philippines, Indonesia, South Africa, Nigeria, and Vietnam. Currently, for example, massive uptake of solar PV electricity generation is changing the energy landscape, the practice of agriculture and the living standards in many African countries, from solar street (and home) lighting [53] through solar irrigation [54]. Africa's countries in 2022 produce over 24 million tonnes of rice [55], which creates large availability of RHA for use as new raw material for polysilicon manufacturing.…”

Solar irrigation potential in Sub-Saharan Africa: a crop-specific techno-economic analysis

“…The current literature includes studies on irrigation potential in SSA, examined at both country-level [32][33][34][35] and continental scales [36][37][38][39]. These range from geographic information system (GIS)-based environmental suitability assessments [32,33] to identify viable locations for solar irrigation, to comprehensive integrated modeling, combining GIS-environmental suitability, hydrological, crop simulation, and economic benefits-costs analyses [34,35,37,40,41].…”