EAU4Food: European Union and African Union cooperative research to increase Food production in irrigated farming systems in Africa
EAU4Food seeks to address the enormous challenges African agriculture is facing today: despite numerous attempts, agricultural productivity has only slightly increased in recent years and, in general, cannot keep up with population growth. In the coming years irrigation will gain importance, but at the same time the availability of fresh water and the sustainable use of soil resources is under increasing pressure. Hence, new approaches are required to increase food production in irrigated areas in Africa, while ensuring healthy and resilient environments.
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LPA meeting Giyani, RSA 2013.
The 3rd LPA and CoP meeting was held in Giyani in April 2013. This meeting was well attended with more than 40 people participating. Some of the main feedback was to extend the experimental trials to other farms and to involve local potential students from Limpopo, who have a good knowledge of the area.
During the LPA session different scenarios were defined to answer the following answers:
What are realistic and feasible scenarios in the terms of irrigation development and water conservation?
The proposed scenarios include: climate change, decrease the irrigated area (intensify the area which is still irrigated), storage of peak flows of water and the option to divert channels in order to increase water availability in areas with little access to water.
Picture: Experimental trial at Mzilela with tomatoes.
