Toward a better understanding of the environmental impacts of expanding farmer-led irrigation in Sub-Saharan Africa: An exploratory assessment of irrigation-induced risk of nutrient water pollution in Ethiopia

Irrigation, and especially farmer-led irrigation, is considered to be a promising option for enhancing agricultural productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa. However, there is a lack of thorough understanding of the impacts of irrigation development on environment. Past discussions are mainly limited to t...

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Main Authors: Xie, Hua, Dile, Yihun T., Ringler, Claudia, Srinivasa, R., Worqlul, Abeyou Wale
Format: Journal Article
Language:Inglés
Published: IOP Publishing 2023
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/140374
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author Xie, Hua
Dile, Yihun T.
Ringler, Claudia
Srinivasa, R.
Worqlul, Abeyou Wale
author_browse Dile, Yihun T.
Ringler, Claudia
Srinivasa, R.
Worqlul, Abeyou Wale
Xie, Hua
author_facet Xie, Hua
Dile, Yihun T.
Ringler, Claudia
Srinivasa, R.
Worqlul, Abeyou Wale
author_sort Xie, Hua
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description Irrigation, and especially farmer-led irrigation, is considered to be a promising option for enhancing agricultural productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa. However, there is a lack of thorough understanding of the impacts of irrigation development on environment. Past discussions are mainly limited to the water depletion and hydrological regime change effect of irrigation. This paper presents a study to narrow the knowledge gap by assessing nutrient water pollution risk induced by the expansion of farmer-led irrigation in Ethiopia. Using household survey data collected from four woredas in Ethiopia where irrigated crop production currently concentrates, we first evaluate the impact of irrigation on cropping intensity and annual consumption level of fertilizers and then use the findings of the household survey data analysis to support conceptualization of a modeling framework for assessing agricultural nutrient water pollution risk from farmer-led irrigation development in Ethiopia at national scale. We project that overall farmer-led irrigation development in Ethiopia will lead to a gentle increase in national total of agricultural nutrient loadings. This result helps justify the endeavor of promoting farmer-led irrigation in Ethiopia. On the other hand, the projected nutrient flow and nutrient loading growth rate related to the farmer-led irrigation expansion are highly heterogeneous spatially, and risk of local water quality deterioration exists. There is still need to make investment to ensure the environmental sustainability of farmer-led irrigation development.
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language Inglés
publishDate 2023
publishDateRange 2023
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spelling CGSpace1403742025-10-26T12:51:04Z Toward a better understanding of the environmental impacts of expanding farmer-led irrigation in Sub-Saharan Africa: An exploratory assessment of irrigation-induced risk of nutrient water pollution in Ethiopia Xie, Hua Dile, Yihun T. Ringler, Claudia Srinivasa, R. Worqlul, Abeyou Wale data environmental impact surveys water pollution farmer-led irrigation water irrigation agricultural productivity Irrigation, and especially farmer-led irrigation, is considered to be a promising option for enhancing agricultural productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa. However, there is a lack of thorough understanding of the impacts of irrigation development on environment. Past discussions are mainly limited to the water depletion and hydrological regime change effect of irrigation. This paper presents a study to narrow the knowledge gap by assessing nutrient water pollution risk induced by the expansion of farmer-led irrigation in Ethiopia. Using household survey data collected from four woredas in Ethiopia where irrigated crop production currently concentrates, we first evaluate the impact of irrigation on cropping intensity and annual consumption level of fertilizers and then use the findings of the household survey data analysis to support conceptualization of a modeling framework for assessing agricultural nutrient water pollution risk from farmer-led irrigation development in Ethiopia at national scale. We project that overall farmer-led irrigation development in Ethiopia will lead to a gentle increase in national total of agricultural nutrient loadings. This result helps justify the endeavor of promoting farmer-led irrigation in Ethiopia. On the other hand, the projected nutrient flow and nutrient loading growth rate related to the farmer-led irrigation expansion are highly heterogeneous spatially, and risk of local water quality deterioration exists. There is still need to make investment to ensure the environmental sustainability of farmer-led irrigation development. 2023-06-01 2024-03-14T12:09:26Z 2024-03-14T12:09:26Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/140374 en Open Access IOP Publishing Xie, Hua; Dile, Yihun Taddele; Ringler, Claudia; Srinivasan, Raghavan; and Worqlul, Abeyou Wale. 2023. Toward a better understanding of the environmental impacts of expanding farmer-led irrigation in Sub-Saharan Africa: An exploratory assessment of irrigation-induced risk of nutrient water pollution in Ethiopia. Environmental Research Communications 5(6): 065001. https://doi.org/10.1088/2515-7620/acd6db
spellingShingle data
environmental impact
surveys
water pollution
farmer-led irrigation
water
irrigation
agricultural productivity
Xie, Hua
Dile, Yihun T.
Ringler, Claudia
Srinivasa, R.
Worqlul, Abeyou Wale
Toward a better understanding of the environmental impacts of expanding farmer-led irrigation in Sub-Saharan Africa: An exploratory assessment of irrigation-induced risk of nutrient water pollution in Ethiopia
title Toward a better understanding of the environmental impacts of expanding farmer-led irrigation in Sub-Saharan Africa: An exploratory assessment of irrigation-induced risk of nutrient water pollution in Ethiopia
title_full Toward a better understanding of the environmental impacts of expanding farmer-led irrigation in Sub-Saharan Africa: An exploratory assessment of irrigation-induced risk of nutrient water pollution in Ethiopia
title_fullStr Toward a better understanding of the environmental impacts of expanding farmer-led irrigation in Sub-Saharan Africa: An exploratory assessment of irrigation-induced risk of nutrient water pollution in Ethiopia
title_full_unstemmed Toward a better understanding of the environmental impacts of expanding farmer-led irrigation in Sub-Saharan Africa: An exploratory assessment of irrigation-induced risk of nutrient water pollution in Ethiopia
title_short Toward a better understanding of the environmental impacts of expanding farmer-led irrigation in Sub-Saharan Africa: An exploratory assessment of irrigation-induced risk of nutrient water pollution in Ethiopia
title_sort toward a better understanding of the environmental impacts of expanding farmer led irrigation in sub saharan africa an exploratory assessment of irrigation induced risk of nutrient water pollution in ethiopia
topic data
environmental impact
surveys
water pollution
farmer-led irrigation
water
irrigation
agricultural productivity
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/140374
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