Most of the world is still dependent on rainfall for sustaining agriculture. But increasingly, thanks to climate change, rain gods have started playing spoilsport. Extreme rainfall variations have started hitting agricultural output, especially in Africa and Asia. Now, a report by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) says that the answer lies in better water management.
The report spelled out the immediate need to spread out the sources of water required for crops and not just rely on seasonal rainfall. IWMI put the figure at 499 million in Africa and India who could benefit from better agricultural water management.
Matthew McCartney, a hydrologist at IWMI, stated –
“Just as modern consumers diversify their financial holdings to reduce risk, smallholder farmers need a wide array of ‘water accounts’ to provide a buffer against climate change impacts. That way, if one water source goes dry, they’ll have others to fall back on.”
Cultivation practices have undergone some amount of modern makeover, but it is still predominantly monsoon dependent. In Asia, 66 percent still await the monsoons; while in Africa 94 percent of farmers depend on rainfall. The worry is that more droughts, floods, and heatwaves are predicted in the coming years as climate change gets increasingly worse.
The best bet is an integrated approach that combines various avenues like large as well as small storage methods. Natural wetlands, water stored in the soil, groundwater and water collected in ponds, tanks and reservoirs, all should be used in combination to offset the unreliability of monsoons.
Matthew McCartney says –
“For millions of people dependent on rain-fed agriculture, reliable access to water can make all the difference between chronic hunger and steady progress toward food security. Even small amounts of stored water, by enabling crops and livestock to survive dry periods, can produce large gains in agricultural productivity and in the wellbeing of rural people.”
Field studies in Zimbabwe and Niger show the positive fallout in agricultural production when small ‘water basins’ have been used.
Looking at multiple options is also important because of the negative environmental repercussions of large scale dam projects. Debates have repeatedly pointed out that the negative impact on the environment and the endemic population of man, animal, and plants outweigh the positives that come out of it.
Image: Vistas4
