Nile River Basin: Ecohydrological challenges, climate change and hydropolitics

Rainfed agriculture will continue to play an important role in achieving food security and reducing poverty in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). But it is threatened by a combination of technology, policy, and institutional failures. Effects of recurrent drought and future climatic changes would affect rain...

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Autores principales: Amede, Tilahun, Awulachew, Seleshi Bekele, Matti, B., Yitayew, M.
Formato: Capítulo de libro
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: Springer 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/75839
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author Amede, Tilahun
Awulachew, Seleshi Bekele
Matti, B.
Yitayew, M.
author_browse Amede, Tilahun
Awulachew, Seleshi Bekele
Matti, B.
Yitayew, M.
author_facet Amede, Tilahun
Awulachew, Seleshi Bekele
Matti, B.
Yitayew, M.
author_sort Amede, Tilahun
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description Rainfed agriculture will continue to play an important role in achieving food security and reducing poverty in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). But it is threatened by a combination of technology, policy, and institutional failures. Effects of recurrent drought and future climatic changes would affect rainfed systems and it would be most felt in SSA systems, where local institutions are not yet well prepared to respond to emerging climatic shocks. Rainwater management (RWM) is one strategy that could minimize drought effects through mapping, capturing, storing, and efficiently utilizing runoff and surface water emerging from farms and watershed for both productive purposes and ecosystem services. The extra water saved could be used to grow long maturing crops, producing more than one crop per season or diversify production systems. Enabling wider adoption of RWM interventions would improve the profitability of smallholder agriculture by increasing crop and livestock yield by factors of up to fivefold, while net returns on investment could double. However, adoptions of these interventions demand supportive policies and institutions, to enable farmer innovation, multi-institutional engagements, and collective action of actors at various levels. This is particularly critical in semiarid river basins, for instance the Nile basin, where because water availability is seasonal, upstream water towers are threatened by land degradation and deforestation and competition for surface water is becoming severe and could ignite regional conflict. This chapter contributes to the ongoing discussion on rainfed agriculture by not only inventorying the available RWM technologies and practices that could be used by small-scale farmers under various drought scenarios but also reviewing the challenges of technology uptake. It suggests institutional arrangements and policy recommendations required to improve uptake of RWM interventions at local, national, and regional levels.
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spelling CGSpace758392023-12-08T19:36:04Z Nile River Basin: Ecohydrological challenges, climate change and hydropolitics Amede, Tilahun Awulachew, Seleshi Bekele Matti, B. Yitayew, M. hydrogeology water resources physical geography climate change Rainfed agriculture will continue to play an important role in achieving food security and reducing poverty in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). But it is threatened by a combination of technology, policy, and institutional failures. Effects of recurrent drought and future climatic changes would affect rainfed systems and it would be most felt in SSA systems, where local institutions are not yet well prepared to respond to emerging climatic shocks. Rainwater management (RWM) is one strategy that could minimize drought effects through mapping, capturing, storing, and efficiently utilizing runoff and surface water emerging from farms and watershed for both productive purposes and ecosystem services. The extra water saved could be used to grow long maturing crops, producing more than one crop per season or diversify production systems. Enabling wider adoption of RWM interventions would improve the profitability of smallholder agriculture by increasing crop and livestock yield by factors of up to fivefold, while net returns on investment could double. However, adoptions of these interventions demand supportive policies and institutions, to enable farmer innovation, multi-institutional engagements, and collective action of actors at various levels. This is particularly critical in semiarid river basins, for instance the Nile basin, where because water availability is seasonal, upstream water towers are threatened by land degradation and deforestation and competition for surface water is becoming severe and could ignite regional conflict. This chapter contributes to the ongoing discussion on rainfed agriculture by not only inventorying the available RWM technologies and practices that could be used by small-scale farmers under various drought scenarios but also reviewing the challenges of technology uptake. It suggests institutional arrangements and policy recommendations required to improve uptake of RWM interventions at local, national, and regional levels. 2014 2016-06-24T06:09:56Z 2016-06-24T06:09:56Z Book Chapter https://hdl.handle.net/10568/75839 en Limited Access Springer Amede, T., Bekele S., Matti, B., Yitayew, M. 2014. Managing Rainwater for resilient dryland systems. IN: Melesse, A., Abtew, W. and Setegn, S. 2014. Nile River Basin: Ecohydrological challenges, climate change and hydropolitics. Switzerland: Springer International Publishing.
spellingShingle hydrogeology
water resources
physical geography
climate change
Amede, Tilahun
Awulachew, Seleshi Bekele
Matti, B.
Yitayew, M.
Nile River Basin: Ecohydrological challenges, climate change and hydropolitics
title Nile River Basin: Ecohydrological challenges, climate change and hydropolitics
title_full Nile River Basin: Ecohydrological challenges, climate change and hydropolitics
title_fullStr Nile River Basin: Ecohydrological challenges, climate change and hydropolitics
title_full_unstemmed Nile River Basin: Ecohydrological challenges, climate change and hydropolitics
title_short Nile River Basin: Ecohydrological challenges, climate change and hydropolitics
title_sort nile river basin ecohydrological challenges climate change and hydropolitics
topic hydrogeology
water resources
physical geography
climate change
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/75839
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AT awulachewseleshibekele nileriverbasinecohydrologicalchallengesclimatechangeandhydropolitics
AT mattib nileriverbasinecohydrologicalchallengesclimatechangeandhydropolitics
AT yitayewm nileriverbasinecohydrologicalchallengesclimatechangeandhydropolitics