Abstract
Agriculture remains important in driving economic transformation, sustainable livelihoods, and development in developing countries. This paper provides a comprehensive analysis and discussion of climate change impacts on water and agriculture sectors and implications for the attainment of developmental outcomes such as food security, poverty reduction, and sustainable development in Southern Africa. The review gives policy messages for coping, adapting, and building resilience of water and agricultural production systems in the face of projected changes in climate and variability. The aim is to guide the region towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. Future projections for Southern Africa indicate reduced rainfall, increased temperatures, and high variability for the greater part of the region with severe reductions on the drier and marginal western parts. These impacts have profound implications for agriculture performance and contribution to national and regional developmental goals. The region is projected to experience reductions of between 15% and 50% in agricultural productivity, a scenario that would exacerbate food insecurity in the region. The challenge is to increase productivity on current arable land through efficient and sustainable management of available water and energy, and at the same time reducing pressure on the environment. Affordability and accessibility of innovative adaptation measures on water resources remain critical and these strategies should be part of broader sustainable development efforts. Overall, efforts to enhance agricultural productivity need to emphasise investments in sustainable management and use of water and energy resources in agriculture to achieve sustainable economic growth and livelihoods.
Highlights
The agriculture and water sectors remain important in driving economic transformation, sustainable livelihoods, and development, in emerging economies of the developing world [1,2]
Areas in the further north in Angola, The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), parts of Zambia and Mozambique in the east would experience increases of 25% or more, these are small compared to the larger areas that would be unsuitable for cereal production and or would experience substantial decreases of at least 50%
Climate change poses the great threat on water and food security, and it has huge implications on attaining developmental outcomes such as poverty reduction and sustainable development
Summary
The agriculture and water sectors remain important in driving economic transformation, sustainable livelihoods, and development, in emerging economies of the developing world [1,2]. Socio-economic challenges such as poverty, food insecurity, low adaptive capacity, and lack of financial resources and technology worsen the susceptibility of African agriculture systems to changes in climate With this background, the challenge for the agriculture sector is threefold: (a) To adapt to changing climatic conditions; (b) produce enough food and fibre to feed the growing population; and (c) to reduce and/or minimise the sector’s contribution to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions [4]. The review aims to provide policy and decision-making with evidence-based strategic pathways that lead to climate change adaptation and resilience in the water and agriculture sectors These efforts contribute to continental commitments, such as Aspiration 1 (A prosperous Africa based on inclusive growth and sustainable development) of Agenda 2063 and the 2014 Malabo Declaration to build resilience and adaptive capacity of agricultural production systems to improve performance of the agriculture sector to attain inclusive sustainable livelihoods and development [3]
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