DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania (PAMACC News) - Building a large dam to feed into a hydro-electricity power plant in a river basin will always result in trade-offs, as sectors such as urban water supply, rural food production and ecosystem services compete with a country’s growing energy demands. Infrastructure built now will have an effect on the system long into the future, when climate change impacts are likely to manifest.
In light of these challenges, how should river basins be designed?
UMFULA is working with water researchers and managers in Tanzania to address such questions. The team, led by Professor Declan Conway (London School of Economics), is generating new insights and understanding about climate processes and extreme weather events, and their impacts on water, energy, and agriculture.
The project results are becoming available just as work begins on building the Julius Nyerere Hydropower Project (JNHPP) on the Rufiji River, earmarked for a site about 200km south of Dar es Salaam. For the first time, researchers and planners are considering these trade-offs in detail, and assessing how they might evolve with climate change across the Rufiji River Basin.
The ability to create computer simulations of the river basin will be made available using a new river basin management model called ‘Python water resources’ or ‘Pywr’, and will be applied to the Rufiji River Basin in Tanzania. Rather than using a model that needs to be installed via proprietary software, the open-source model will be available to project members and stakeholder partners online through a website. Both the model and its website are generalised tools, applicable to any region but are applied to Tanzania in this project.
The tool is designed to support longer-term water management decisions upstream and downstream of the dam linked with the JNHPP scheme. It can also inform infrastructure planning across the basin, where other hydro-schemes and dams are under consideration for development.
There are complicated interactions in a river basin system, where demands for water, food production, and energy intersect with environmental needs, explains Prof. Julien Harou (chair of water engineering at the University of Manchester, United Kingdom) who is spearheading the application of this new FCFA-funded online systems-based assessment tool.
A system-scale assessment approach can help identify tradeoffs between different water needs so that decision-makers can better understand the impact of water and hydro-scheme infrastructure development in the basin, and make better-informed water management decisions in other sectors, such as agriculture.
One anticipated demand on water in the Rufiji River Basin is from agricultural irrigation, much of which is drawn off the river by unregulated water users, which will increasingly impact on water flow in future. Another area for consideration is the possible impact that dams and hydro-schemes will have on water flow downstream of each development including the impact on wildlife and ecosystems associated with riverine and estuarine edges such as wetlands, floodplains, riverine forests, and mangroves.
This online tool will allow stakeholders to conduct basin-wide assessments to consider contested demands for water and can help identify infrastructure opportunities or inform operational policies to balance potential benefits and impacts according to Harou. It could also help different sectors better coordinate water management and infrastructure development decisions.
The first iteration of the tool, which will be further refined by Prof. Japhet Kashaigili of the Sokoine University of Agriculture and Tanzania’s Rufiji Basin Water Board, allows for a basin-wide assessment of the tradeoffs between sectors with competing water needs, as well as the possible synergies. The next step of the tool’s development is to include UMFULA project data that will allow estimating future impacts of climate change. Climate change is expected to alter temperatures, evaporation rates, and rainfall patterns across the river basin in coming decades and will impact water availability in the catchment.
The Julius Nyerere Hydropower Project will involve building one of the largest dams in East Africa, explains Harou, and stakeholders have already identified the main tradeoffs that this project will involve. This includes competing demands for irrigation taken from the system, much of which is removed from the river informally by farmers and the impact on the Nyerere National Park which is upriver of the JNHPP dam and where about 2 per cent of the park is expected to be flooded once the dam is completed.
Computer modelling of river basins is technically complex and usually only accessible to a small scientific community. This new tool is part of an effort to open up strategic river basin planning to a wider community of stakeholders involved in governance and water management in the region including; government, researchers, and civil society organisations.
The work reported on in this story is part of the FCFA UMFULA research initiative, a four-year project that aims to improve climate information for decision-making in central and southern Africa, with a particular focus on Tanzania and Malawi.
This article was written by Leonie Joubert as part of a series covering the science produced by various FCFA projects, and introduces some of the people behind it.
NAIROBI, Kenya (PAMACC News) - As the world grapple with containment of COVID-19 pandemic, food protests especially among poor and vulnerable African communities are likely going to be deadlier than the virus itself, if governments and international institutions do not act now, experts have warned.
In a virtual meeting with the press from across Africa, experts from the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) and ONE – a global movement campaigning to end extreme poverty and preventable disease by 2030 said that there exists a window of opportunity for governments to save the situation, and plan for future eventualities but only if they act in time.
“We are heading towards a real disaster because when hunger comes in, people will always protests,” said Dr Fidel Ndiame, AGRA’s Vice President for Policy and State Capacity, noting that COVID-19 effects to food security are going to be worse than what was witnessed during Ebola, because the current virus is affecting the entire world.
As a short term measure, the experts want African governments to expand and improve food assistance and social protection programs to protect the most vulnerable including cash-based transfers as the primary safety net, which can largely be distributed through contactless solutions; in-kind food assistance such as take-home rations, food package delivery, and food vouchers where necessary.
It was observed that at the moment, there is no food shortage in the global market. In Europe and the US for example, milk is being dumped and eggs are being smashed as demand from restaurants decreases. But access to the food poses a problem because borders have been closed, and movements curtailed as part of COVID-19 containment measures.
At the same time, during such crisis, some families panic and hoard food. In response, countries impose export restrictions in a misguided effort to protect domestic prices. This is likely going to be a huge problem because many African countries depend on imported food, especially rice from Asian countries.
“Food security concerns go hand in hand with pandemics,” said Edwin Ikhuoria, ONE’s Africa Executive Director, noting that the SARS and MERS outbreaks led to food price hikes and market panics in affected areas, leaving the poorest groups without access to essential foods, especially staples
In the East African region for example, Tanzanian President Dr John Pombe Magufuli has publicly urged farmers in his the country not to sell food to neighboring countries, and if they must sell it, they must make sure they charge exorbitantly to take advantage of food shortages in countries that imposed lockdown to contain the virus.
With the invasion of desert locust, floods and containment measures for COVID-19, Kenya and Uganda are the most affected in the region. Kenya in particular heavily relies on supplies of commodities such as onions, fruits, tomatoes and other vegetables from Tanzania through Namanga border. Yet, due to the COVID-19 pandemic containment measures, movements across the border have been restricted.
To that end, the experts asked all governments to step up efforts to ensure adequate food reserves by stepping up local production and storage, and called on donors to fully fund the US$1.5 billion requested by the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP).
GAFSP, created by the G20 in response to the 2007-2008 food price crises, is a multilateral mechanism to improve food and nutrition security that has effectively channeled finances to governments, the private sector, and directly to farmers.
To the international institutions, the experts called on the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Board to act to create $500bn in Special Drawing Rights and all actors should immediately enact a debt moratorium for bilateral, multilateral and private debt for 2020 and 2021.
“Special Drawing Rights should be allocated to poorer countries, providing them with immediate liquidity to respond to the crisis, said Ikhuoria, further calling on donors to fully fund the US$6.7 billion requested for the Global Humanitarian Response Plan.
The GHRP is a coordinated global humanitarian response plan to fight COVID-19 in 64 of the world’s most vulnerable countries, and includes financing for the UN World Food Program (WFP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
The IMF forecasts global economic growth to contract by 3% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2020, a downgrade of 6.3 percentage points from the January 2020 projection. This will make it the worst downturn since the Great Depression. As a result, 419 million additional people could fall into extreme poverty in 2020, particularly in the sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia according to the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)
Recent studies on the impact of COVID-19 in rural China confirm that in order to ensure adequate food, families substituted high nutrition foods such as meat and produce, for lower nutrition items like grains and staples, significantly impacting nutrition. In Senegal, more than 85% of its population has seen a reduction in income, and as a result, over a third of them now eat less food every day.
Generally, the main productive asset of the poor is physical labor. Yet, this has already been affected by social distancing measures making efforts to contain the virus much more challenging, according to IFPRI.
As a result, media reports have shown that vulnerable citizens in Tunisia have disobeyed lockdown measures to protest over hunger. In Zimbabwe, where extreme hunger debilitates 30% of the population, many are willing to risk contracting COVID-19 if it means they can eat.
“We need governments to develop sustainable food systems that can support individual countries even in times of crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Ndiame.
NAIROBI, Kenya (PAMACC News) - As the world grapple with containment of COVID-19 pandemic, food protests especially among poor and vulnerable African communities are likely going to be deadlier than the virus itself, if governments and international institutions do not act now, experts have warned.
In a virtual meeting with the press from across Africa, experts from the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) and ONE – a global movement campaigning to end extreme poverty and preventable disease by 2030 said that there exists a window of opportunity for governments to save the situation, and plan for future eventualities but only if they act in time.
“We are heading towards a real disaster because when hunger comes in, people will always protests,” said Dr Fidel Ndiame, AGRA’s Vice President for Policy and State Capacity, noting that COVID-19 effects to food security are going to be worse than what was witnessed during Ebola, because the current virus is affecting the entire world.
As a short term measure, the experts want African governments to expand and improve food assistance and social protection programs to protect the most vulnerable including cash-based transfers as the primary safety net, which can largely be distributed through contactless solutions; in-kind food assistance such as take-home rations, food package delivery, and food vouchers where necessary.
It was observed that at the moment, there is no food shortage in the global market. In Europe and the US for example, milk is being dumped and eggs are being smashed as demand from restaurants decreases. But access to the food poses a problem because borders have been closed, and movements curtailed as part of COVID-19 containment measures.
At the same time, during such crisis, some families panic and hoard food. In response, countries impose export restrictions in a misguided effort to protect domestic prices. This is likely going to be a huge problem because many African countries depend on imported food, especially rice from Asian countries.
“Food security concerns go hand in hand with pandemics,” said Edwin Ikhuoria, ONE’s Africa Executive Director, noting that the SARS and MERS outbreaks led to food price hikes and market panics in affected areas, leaving the poorest groups without access to essential foods, especially staples
In the East African region for example, Tanzanian President Dr John Pombe Magufuli has publicly urged farmers in his the country not to sell food to neighboring countries, and if they must sell it, they must make sure they charge exorbitantly to take advantage of food shortages in countries that imposed lockdown to contain the virus.
With the invasion of desert locust, floods and containment measures for COVID-19, Kenya and Uganda are the most affected in the region. Kenya in particular heavily relies on supplies of commodities such as onions, fruits, tomatoes and other vegetables from Tanzania through Namanga border. Yet, due to the COVID-19 pandemic containment measures, movements across the border have been restricted.
To that end, the experts asked all governments to step up efforts to ensure adequate food reserves by stepping up local production and storage, and called on donors to fully fund the US$1.5 billion requested by the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP).
GAFSP, created by the G20 in response to the 2007-2008 food price crises, is a multilateral mechanism to improve food and nutrition security that has effectively channeled finances to governments, the private sector, and directly to farmers.
To the international institutions, the experts called on the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Board to act to create $500bn in Special Drawing Rights and all actors should immediately enact a debt moratorium for bilateral, multilateral and private debt for 2020 and 2021.
“Special Drawing Rights should be allocated to poorer countries, providing them with immediate liquidity to respond to the crisis, said Ikhuoria, further calling on donors to fully fund the US$6.7 billion requested for the Global Humanitarian Response Plan.
The GHRP is a coordinated global humanitarian response plan to fight COVID-19 in 64 of the world’s most vulnerable countries, and includes financing for the UN World Food Program (WFP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
The IMF forecasts global economic growth to contract by 3% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2020, a downgrade of 6.3 percentage points from the January 2020 projection. This will make it the worst downturn since the Great Depression. As a result, 419 million additional people could fall into extreme poverty in 2020, particularly in the sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia according to the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)
Recent studies on the impact of COVID-19 in rural China confirm that in order to ensure adequate food, families substituted high nutrition foods such as meat and produce, for lower nutrition items like grains and staples, significantly impacting nutrition. In Senegal, more than 85% of its population has seen a reduction in income, and as a result, over a third of them now eat less food every day.
Generally, the main productive asset of the poor is physical labor. Yet, this has already been affected by social distancing measures making efforts to contain the virus much more challenging, according to IFPRI.
As a result, media reports have shown that vulnerable citizens in Tunisia have disobeyed lockdown measures to protest over hunger. In Zimbabwe, where extreme hunger debilitates 30% of the population, many are willing to risk contracting COVID-19 if it means they can eat.
“We need governments to develop sustainable food systems that can support individual countries even in times of crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Ndiame.
In this Interview with journalists, the Programme Coordinator of Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT), Dr Chrysantus Akem, highlights some of the activities of TAAT to improve agricultural productivity in Africa. Our reporter brings excerpts.
What is TAAT all about?
TAAT means Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation. The African Development Bank, in 2018 launched the TAAT programme as part of its coordinated plan to radically transform Africa’s agriculture into a business-oriented and commercially viable sector that guarantees the continent’s food self-sufficiency and puts an end to food insecurity and malnutrition. The programme is an integral part of the bank’s Feed Africa Strategy of 2016–2025. TAAT’s overall objective is to harness high-impact, proven agricultural technologies to raise agricultural productivity in Africa; mitigate risks and promote diversification and processing in 18 agricultural value chains within eight priority intervention areas.
What is the progress so far in deploying agricultural technologies in Africa?
Within two years, TAAT has recorded successes in bringing the latest technologies to African farmers at scale – enabling them to increase yields and improve their livelihoods. The programme has achieved considerable increase in agricultural productivity through the deployment of proven and high-performance agricultural technologies at scale along selected nine commodity value chains. These include Maize, Rice, Wheat, High Iron Bean, Cassava, Orange Fleshed Sweet Potato, Sorghum/Millet, Livestock and Aquaculture. Also, working with its partners through enabler compacts, TAAT has within twenty-four months of implementation contributed significantly to addressing transversal issues in African agriculture ranging from soil fertility, water, capacity development, policy support, attracting African youth in agribusiness and responding to fall armyworm invasion.
In practical terms, TAAT has, through its Rice Compact, deployed breeder seeds totaling 33.17 metric tons of improved and climate-smart mega rice varieties which are aromatic long grain and good grain quality, early maturity, drought and striga-tolerant. In Cassava, TAAT has increased farmers' access to planting materials by deploying over 200,000 high nutrient-density cuttings and has facilitated the establishment of Seed Bulking Facilities using the SAH technology Thanks to the new varieties such as Imam, Zakia and Bohain, Sudan’s wheat-growing area in 2018/19 saw a sharp rise to around 294,000 hectares. This is up from 201,000 hectares in 2017/18. In partnership with 28 seed companies, the TAAT Maize Compact has so far distributed 84,321 free small pack seeds to boost the scale up of over 17,340 tons of climate-smart maize seeds produced in partnership with the seed companies.
Similar success stories abound in other TAAT interventions in Aquaculture, High Iron Beans, Orange-fleshed Sweet Potato, Livestock, Sorghum and Millet across 31 African countries.
What are the technologies being deployed by TAAT across Africa?
TAAT is deploying proven agricultural technologies at scale. Some of these include drought-resistant maize varieties, heat-resistant wheat varieties, climate-smart sorghum and millet, improved hybrid rice, high iron bean varieties, sheep fattening technologies, fodder and soil conservation technologies, nutrients-dense cassava and orange-fleshed sweet potato varieties, and treatments against pests like fall armyworm, which has been devastating crops across the continent. We have also sustained the momentum and commitment to deliver high quality seeds, cassava cuttings, potato vine cuttings and fingerlings (in aquaculture) to African farmers.
How is the TAAT programme organised and implemented?
TAAT system serves to take modernising agricultural technologies to scale in a unique and effective manner as evidenced by the rapid success of the programme within two years. IITA is the Executing Agency of the programme in close partnership with several other centres of the CGIAR and some specialised agencies acting as Implementing Agencies for specific components of the programme. In the first phase of TAAT, Implementing Agencies include the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF), AfricaRice, the Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT), the Centro International de la Papa (CIP), the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), the International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), the International Centre for Research in Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), the International Fertilizer Development Corporation (IFDC), the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), and WorldFish Centre.
With so many implementing agencies and a mandate over more than a dozen commodities and interventions in all member countries of the African Development Fund, the implementation of TAAT is overseen by a Regional Technology Delivery Infrastructure made up of four entities: The Program Steering Committee (PSC), the Clearinghouse, the Program Management Unit (PMU) and the Commodity Technology Delivery Compacts.
What is the role of agricultural economics in the transformation of agriculture in Africa?
Basically, when we look at agricultural economics, we see it from the theoretical angle. TAAT for example is deploying proven technologies in the practical sense, looking at how can we optimize production and maximize profit for African farmers, and that is where agricultural economics intersects with TAAT. It is about economics of production; economics of scale and we see ourselves as partners with regards translating agricultural economics into reality.
Thank you, Dr Akem, for your time
It’s a pleasure.
