Advances in Quantifying Impact and Extent of Water-Land-Food Nexus for Food Security in Africa

作者：Auguste Cesar Itangishaka, Yonghui Yang, Kiril Manevski, Huilong Li, Telesphore Habiyakare, Gratien Twagirayezu, Jean Yves Uwamungu, Christine Mushimiyimana, Romaine Ingabire, Hubert Hirwa, Vincent Nzabarinda · 发表于：Agricultural Sciences · 年份：2022 · DOI：10.4236/as.2022.134035 · 被引用次数：4 · 研究领域：Water-Energy-Food Nexus Studies、Energy and Environment Impacts、Water resources management and optimization

Food systems have the potential to promote human health and enhance environmental sustainability; yet most African countries have decadal starvation and malnourishment due to unstable food systems lacking basic nutritional profiles. To understand the key questions of the African food production and food security crisis, it is important to evaluate the past and the present balance of food production and consumption quantitatively and comprehensively and identify resource constraints. This continental study analyzed water-land-food (WLF) nexus in recent decades (1997-2017) and accessed whether these resources cope with different population growth projections, dietary changes and agricultural water management. The findings revealed that in 2017, total production in Africa for the four major crops was 83.3, 34.1, 21.0 and 26.7 million tons for, respectively, maize, rice, sorghum and wheat. Together with the imported food, 38 countries experienced an increase in kcal by food supply, while 7 countries encountered a decrease. However, only 6 countries were above the 1500 kcal∙capita−1∙day−1—the global average food consumption from the four major crops. The study also found that in the context of food production and out of the total African population, 268 million (21.6%) have enough land and water, 310 million (25.0%) is without enough land and water, further 279 million (22.5%) have enough water but not enough land, and 381 million (30.8%) encounter enough land but not enough water...