Assessing realities, potential and limitations of groundwater use

Groundwater Socio-ecology of sub-Saharan Africa

Project Description / Background 

In sub-Saharan Africa, the role of groundwater use in agriculture is much greater than commonly assumed, and it plays a pivotal role in sustaining rural households. It seems also clear that the absolute role of groundwater in African agriculture is much smaller than in Asia. This appears to be related more to a limited effective accessibility to (as opposed to availability of) groundwater stemming from a variety of factors including geology, geography/spatial variation, tradition and political economy. Unfortunately, documentary evidence of the socio-ecology of actual agricultural water use in sub-Saharan Africa in general, and groundwater use in particular, is poor at best. There are hardly any data on smallholder irrigation outside larger schemes.

Goal - Specific Objectives 

Because of the poor state of knowledge on groundwater use and its socio-ecological setting in sub-Saharan Africa, the goal of this project is to develop background analyses of groundwater use in a number of sub-Saharan African countries with a special focus on agricultural and livestock use. 

Outputs

The project produced with assistance of a number of national partners country reports for Niger, Ghana, Burkina Faso and Mali. These reports are currently summarized by Mark Giordano (mark.giordano@cgiar.org).