Abstract
With climate change, drought is expected to increase, and its negative impacts will be particularly important in developing countries, usually with rainfall-dependent agriculture. The Cabo Verde archipelago is characterized by limited resources, remoteness, vulnerability to natural disasters, and a fragile environment. In this study, we provide the first report of the current status and trends of agriculture in Cabo Verde. We present data on the current performance of agricultural production areas in these islands and discuss them in terms of their most important natural constraint, water. Also, we assess the impact of institutional strategies on crop production and evaluate recent mechanisms that have been engaged towards agrarian development in this archipelago. Our results show that, among the ten Cabo Verde Islands, Santiago has the largest area used for agriculture (52.5%), followed by Santo Antão (16%) and Fogo (15.8%), and that rainfed farming dominates in all of them. The staple crops, such as maize and beans, are produced through rainfed subsistence farming, whereas irrigated crops (i.e., sugarcane, tomatoes) are mostly grown for commercial purposes. The prolonged drought periods, exposure, erosion and soil degradation, which led to increasing desertification over the last decades, have been identified as the main constraints to agrarian development across the ten islands of the archipelago. The strategies of Cabo Verde government to mitigate water scarcity through small-scale irrigation based mainly on small dams and drip irrigation technology have a marked effect on agricultural production in the predominantly arid and semi-arid areas of this archipelago.
Highlights
With climate change, drought is expected to increase in duration and severity, and its negative impacts will be important in developing countries, usually with rainfall-dependent agriculture [1]
We present data on the current performance of agricultural production areas in these islands and discuss them in terms of their most important natural constraint, water
Cabo Verde archipelago is of volcanic origin and nine of its ten islands are inhabited [6]
Summary
Drought is expected to increase in duration and severity, and its negative impacts will be important in developing countries, usually with rainfall-dependent agriculture [1]. The Cabo Verde archipelago consists of ten large islands (of which nine are inhabited). Agronomy 2020, 10, 74 and is located off the western coast of Africa. These islands are characterized by their limited resources, remoteness, susceptibility to natural disasters, vulnerability to external shocks, and fragile environments [2,3]. With a subtropical and dry climate, Cabo Verde has been affected by serious and prolonged droughts over the past decades [4]. The small area available for agriculture, and topographic features such as mountain peaks and steep slopes, contribute to limiting the homogenous cultivation of crops in this archipelago [5].
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