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Showing posts from December, 2023

4. Virtual Water Trade

This post builds upon previous discussions of water scarcity and food security through exploring virtual water trade (VWT) as a potential solution to insufficient infrastructure and agriculture yield gaps in Africa. Despite Africa’s relative abundance of renewable freshwater resources at approximately 6800 m 3  per person per year ( Odularu, 2009 ), high temporal and spatial water resource variability accompanied with scarce irrigation infrastructure and dam capacity ( Konar and Caylor, 2013 ) has resulted in increased agriculture vulnerability to climate change and variability ( Boko et al., 2007 ). Furthermore, agricultural yields have generally been low across Africa, such as in Sub-Saharan Africa ( Bjornlund et al., 2020 ), due to underinvestment and a lack of incentive in production, research, development, and extension services ( FAO, 2009 ), with rising temperatures having already claimed a 34% decline in Africa’s agricultural productivity growth since 1961 ( WMO, 2022 ). T...