Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) faces great challenges in development, including the highest poverty rate in the world, food insecurity, and malnutrition. Given that agriculture is the single most important source of rural livelihood in Africa, an agricultural growth strategy will go a long way to reducing hunger and poverty on the subcontinent. Among the numerous challenges to enhancing agricultural production in SSA is the large spatial and temporal variability and availability of water resources. Currently, agriculture in SSA is predominantly rainfed.

Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) faces great challenges in development, including the highest poverty rate in the world, food insecurity, and malnutrition. Given that agriculture is the single most important source of rural livelihood in Africa, an agricultural growth strategy will go a long way to reducing hunger and poverty on the subcontinent. Among the numerous challenges to enhancing agricultural production in SSA is the large spatial and temporal variability and availability of water resources. Currently, agriculture in SSA is predominantly rainfed.

Study map irrigation sytems and water usage in Usagu for SAGCOT projects

The challenges and threats of water scarcity to dryland populations are set to increase in magnitude and scope. As the world’s population has swollen to well over 6 billion people, some countries have already reached the limits of their water resources. With the existing climate change scenario, almost half the world’s population will be living in areas of high water stress by 2030, including between 75 million and 250 million people in Africa. In addition, water scarcity in some arid and semi-arid places will displace between 24 million and 700 million people (WWDR 2009).

Los desafíos y retos que supone la escasez de agua para las poblaciones de las tierras secas se van a ver incrementados tanto en magnitud como en alcance. Dado que la población mundial es ya superior a los 6.000 millones de personas, algunos países han superado los límites de sus recursos acuíferos. Con el escenario actual de cambio climático, casi la mitad de la población mundial habitará áreas con grandes problemas de agua antes del 2030, lo que incluye a una población de entre 75 y 250 millones de personas en África.

Limpopo Basin

The Limpopo is a relatively dry basin and most water in the more productive areas is already claimed. Rainfall is highly variable and in many parts of the basin there is little run-off with which to produce crops and livestock. The basin is a water-scarce environment in which recurring drought and floods cause devastating impacts on the livelihoods of small-scale, subsistence farmers. However, the more pressing development challenge in these farming systems is the unproductive use of water in the more normal rainfall seasons which are much more prevalent.

Hydrogeochemical processes affecting the chemical composition of groundwater and surface water in the coastal areas of the central and northern sectors of the outer Río de la Plata estuary in Argentina are evaluated. Results indicate hydrochemical differences between the three hydrological units analyzed. In shell ridges, groundwater is a low-salinity sodium bicarbonate type with a predominance of CO2(g)dissolution, carbonate dissolution and ion exchange.

Empirical evidence has shown that farmers can adapt to climate change by using sustainable land and water management (SLWM) practices that provide local mitigation benefits, reducing or offsetting the negative effects of climate change at the level of the plot, farm, or even landscape. However, adaptation to climate change using SLWM practices in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) remains low. This study was conducted to examine the impact of government policies on adaptation to climate change.

Soil and water resources are among natural wealth of a country and are main components of agriculture that meet food requirement. Development, protection and management of the soil and water resources have become a necessity today. Required investments should be made on improvement of water resources to develop the region in terms of agriculture. This study, examining previous studies on soil and water resources in Kırsehir and problems faced and solutions for these problems provides preliminary information on future studies.

The purpose of this work is to contribute to the development of a combined approach to evaluate irrigated areas based on: (1) irrigation performance analysis intended to assess the productive impacts of irrigation practices and infrastructures, and (2) water accounting focused on the hydrological impacts of water use. Ador-Simulation, a combined model that simulates irrigation, water delivery, and crop growth and production was applied in a surface irrigated area (1213ha) located in the Bear River Irrigation Project, Utah, U.S.A..

1. The progression of approaches in systematic conservation planning from representation to representation and persistence has greatly enhanced its potential applicability to freshwaters. However, conceptual frameworks that consolidate principles for incorporating persistence into freshwater conservation planning are still lacking. 2.