Identifying the Problem - Inefficient Water Use

This blog post acts as a strand to draw upon a few previous blog posts that have touched upon the issue of inefficient water use within agriculture. It is an argument throughout that water use within agriculture in Africa is inefficient but how is it inefficient?

The Environmental

• Water is lost through runoff or evapotranspiration. 
• Wallace (2000) suggested that the relief and gradient of the land determines efficiency of water use in both irrigated and non-irrigated land. Where gradients are steep then runoff is increased and infiltration is reduced. 
• Water supply effects the productivity of field crops more than any other environmental factor (Patterson 1984). This means a shift from increasing area of crop production to increasing efficiency is required. 
• Variability in rainfed yields is large (Kijne 2001). Therefore consistency can increase yields as can irrigation. 

The research into the inefficient use of water resources within the agricultural sector has mainly focused on the environmental characteristics and has demonstrated a need for change in the form of (technological) innovation. 

The Human
It is important to note that inefficient water use cannot be solely blamed on environmental factors with the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, in 2005), estimating that between 15-35%  of irrigation withdrawals being unsustainable because farmers took more water than was needed. The FAO built on this and suggested that 60% of water diverted for irrigation is wasted (however, this wastage could be down to either human or environmental factors or both). Its suggested that losses are due to improper system design such as inadequate lining of water channels (Dawn) and poor maintenance.

An interesting concept that has not been touched upon in any of the research or articles that I have read is that if food is wasted than surely the water used to grow it is wasted too and therefore that makes it inefficient. It is a curious link which has seen no discussion but I feel its an important point. If we waste less food then we improve efficiency.

The Political
I'm bringing this one in because the discussion of government accountability and preparedness still rages on in the media - BBC News, The Globe and Mail, and the Poultry Site. as South Africa's drought persists. It was originally covered in a previous blog post that essentially drew the conclusion that the responsibility to improve efficiency of water in agriculture is as much the farmer's responsibility (argued by Wallace) as it is the government. It is the government who can store and manage water (along with private companies) which would mean water is available during periods of water stress.

Inefficiencies in water use within agriculture are more complex than environmental characteristics of human wastage and its a complex interaction of these with the political that means waster use within Africa is very inefficient. As Kijne (2001) and Howell (2000) note that efficiency within agriculture has to increase to meet food security needs as the population continues to explode - something which has  been discussed already on this blog.

South African Drought, Crop Failure and Politics

Unlike other blog posts this one is a bit non-canon but discusses an issue that is currently circulating the "news" portion of Google.

Farmers across South Africa are losing livestock due to drought as well as crop failure (primarily maize). An article by ENCA describes the main issues nicely  and the comments by the public point to the problem being politics rather than lack of rainfall.

"the government have been warned" - said one user called Idi. 

The drought which has significantly reduced arable land in South Africa is forcing the government to import food and this is therefore pushing up food prices. It is interesting because of all the countries in Africa, South Africa would be expected to be the most resilient to a drought.

How is this related to the overarching question of the blog 'Is water use in agriculture inefficient and water are the solutions?'

What I have got from these various articles on Yahoo, Al Jazeera and ENCA and the comments on them is that the government should have been better prepared for droughts. An ineffective government whose limited knowledge of agriculture could exaggerate already inefficient water practices in a way that has put 2.7 million households in danger.

To relate this issue to the purpose of my blog - clearly if better preparation had been taken to make water use in agriculture (and domestically) more efficient then the effects of this drought in South Africa might not be so pronounced.

I think it demonstrates an important point that it is not just the responsibility of the farmers (as suggested in the Wallace article in a previous post) but also the government to improve efficiency of water resources within the sector of agriculture.

In my next post I plan to get back on track and discuss more solutions to inefficiencies in water use within agriculture. Hopefully, I will find a case study to exemplify a success (or failure).