African Water Footprints and the Challenge of Sustainable Agriculture

 As outlined in my introductory post last week, water is a critical resource that is needed to facilitate agricultural production. However, there are significant environmental challenges facing African nations (and the rest of the world) in sustainably meeting its food and water needs, with 4 billion people globally facing severe water scarcity for at least a month each year (Mekonnen, 2016). As many countries see rapid urbanisation and a resulting increased, concentrated demand for food supplies, intensive irrigated agriculture is often seen as a necessary alternative to small-scale subsistence farming. This post will explore the environmental challenges and opportunities in sustainable agriculture through the lens of Dr. Mesfin Mekonnen's work on sustainable agriculture in Kenya.

Figure 1: Irrigated farmland in Nigeria showing intensification of agriculture

Source: The Business Post

With access to only 9% of global freshwater resources (Gaye, 2018), Africa, and particularly Sub-Saharan Africa arguably faces the most quantitative water scarcity. However, the exploitation of groundwater resources has provided the opportunity for widespread adequate provision of clean drinking and agricultural water, given the right infrastructure and sustainable management strategies. In particular, 'Groundwater use for irrigation is forecast to increase substantially to combat growing food insecurity on the continent' (Gaye, 2018), exemplified by Figure 1, where irrigation agriculture is being massively intensified in Nigeria in response to growing population and food demands. As a result, it is important to understand the environmental challenges posed by increased water and food demands on the 'Water footprint' of Africa.

For example, Mekonnen's study of the cut-flower industry in Kenya showed that whilst the growth of export agriculture has supported economic development, the damaging environmental implications involved, such as freshwater pollution and decreases in biodiversity, must be addressed through sustainable management practices. Whilst this is not strictly about food security, the solution proposed of a 'water sustainability agreement between major agents' could use market mechanisms to assist in sustainable water resource management practices. whilst still supporting efforts to meet food security needs. The agreement would contain added product premiums for retailers to account for the environmental costs of production, which would then be redirected towards funding sustainable management efforts (Mekonnen, 2012) This shows the potential for innovative market-based solutions to integrated resource management issues.

Figure 2: The implied virtual water costs of various food products in Litres

Source: Science Media Centre

Another market-based response to water scarcity is through the use of 'virtual water'. Virtual water refers to the water resource costs of manufactured goods or crops produced. For example, it takes 4510 litres of water to produce a t-shirt (Hossain, 2020), and a massive 2400 litres to produce a hamburger, as shown by Figure 2. An application of this concept in market-based solutions would be to import water-intensive products to reduce the resource burden on national producers (Mekonnen, 2014).

However, there are many political issues facing national governments in sustainably meeting their food and security needs, such as economic development goals superseding environmental concerns, as well as resource management practices entrenching socio-economic inequalities in access to water (Mehta et al., 2016). Future posts will try to critically assess some of these contested approaches to water and food resource management.