Answer: Agricultural development has the potential to improve African economies but requires extensive water supplies. These statistics from the Water Systems Analysis Group at the Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space at the University of New Hampshire reveal the urgent need for sustainable agricultural development:
About 64 percent of Africans rely on water that is limited and highly variable;
Croplands inhabit the driest regions of Africa where some 40 percent of the irrigated land is unsustainable;
Roughly 25 percent of Africa’s population suffers from water stress;
Nearly 13 percent of the population in Africa experiences drought-related stress once each generation.
Another aspect of water-related stress is the relationship between water, soil, and agriculture. Pedro Sanchez of the Earth Institute at Columbia University says 96 percent of agriculture in Africa is rain-fed, but soil nutrient depletion is a more pressing problem than drought in sub-Saharan Africa. Development of soil nutrients as opposed to only allocation of water resources to supply agricultural production is the most effective means to relieve agricultural water stress in the long-term, Sanchez says.
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