Agricultural Water Management in Africa
Lessons Learned and Future Directions
- 1st Edition - December 1, 2025
- Imprint: Academic Press
- Editors: Tafadzwanashe Mabhaudhi, Aidan Senzanje, Olufunke Cofie
- Language: English
- Paperback ISBN:9 7 8 - 0 - 4 4 3 - 2 1 5 8 4 - 1
- eBook ISBN:9 7 8 - 0 - 4 4 3 - 2 1 5 8 5 - 8
Agricultural Water Management in Africa: Lessons Learned and Future Directions provides an overview of the status of irrigation development and AWM practices and technolog… Read more
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Agricultural Water Management in Africa: Lessons Learned and Future Directions provides an overview of the status of irrigation development and AWM practices and technologies in Africa and the global south. In addition, it provides guidelines, scenarios, and investment plans to guide the prioritization and operationalization of irrigation development and AWM under climate change. The African Union (AU) is driving investment and improvement in agricultural water management and transformation in Africa through the operationalization of the AU Irrigation Development and Agricultural Water Management in Africa (AU-IDAWM).
The AU-IDAWM provides a framework that identifies four development pathways for enhanced agricultural water management practices across Africa. The pathways are as follows: (1) Pathway 1: Improved water control and watershed management in rain-fed farming, (2) Pathway 2: Farmer-led Irrigation Development (FLID), (3) Pathway 3: Irrigation scheme development and modernization, and (4) Pathway 4: Unconventional water use for irrigation.
- Highlights fit-for-purpose irrigation strategies at scale and identifies opportunities and challenges of irrigation practices
- Expands understanding of the pathways for AWM, presenting operation and maintenance procedures
- Includes bespoke designs guided by AWM pathway approach
Agricultural producers, resource managers, irrigation developers, researchers, planners and policy makers, environmental protection services Students, academics
1. Introduction
SECTION A: Concepts and Overview
2. Agricultural Water Management: an overview of concepts
3. The Status of Agricultural Water Management in Africa: progress, challenges, and opportunities
4. Improving AWM solutions: pathways to enhancing resilience, food, and water security across scales
Section B: Regional case studies - Africa
5. Status of AWM in East Africa
6. Status of AWM in Central Africa
7. Status of AWM in the North Africa
8. Status of AWM in Southern Africa
9. Status of AWM in West Africa
SECTION C: Lessons from the global South
10. South Asia
11. Central Asia and the Middle East
12. Latin America
13. Indian sub-continent
SECTION D: Cross-cutting issues
14. Relevance of the water-energy-food nexus for improving AWM under climate change
15. Water, climate and disaster risks and sustainable and resilient food systems: the context for IDAWM
16. Circular economy: enhancing the transition to and adoption of unconventional water use for irrigation
17. Perspectives to scaling transformative approaches for food, land and water systems.
18. Gender, youth and social inclusion for AWM
SECTION E: Synthesis, conclusion, and recommendations
19. What does the future of AWM in Africa look like under climate change?
SECTION A: Concepts and Overview
2. Agricultural Water Management: an overview of concepts
3. The Status of Agricultural Water Management in Africa: progress, challenges, and opportunities
4. Improving AWM solutions: pathways to enhancing resilience, food, and water security across scales
Section B: Regional case studies - Africa
5. Status of AWM in East Africa
6. Status of AWM in Central Africa
7. Status of AWM in the North Africa
8. Status of AWM in Southern Africa
9. Status of AWM in West Africa
SECTION C: Lessons from the global South
10. South Asia
11. Central Asia and the Middle East
12. Latin America
13. Indian sub-continent
SECTION D: Cross-cutting issues
14. Relevance of the water-energy-food nexus for improving AWM under climate change
15. Water, climate and disaster risks and sustainable and resilient food systems: the context for IDAWM
16. Circular economy: enhancing the transition to and adoption of unconventional water use for irrigation
17. Perspectives to scaling transformative approaches for food, land and water systems.
18. Gender, youth and social inclusion for AWM
SECTION E: Synthesis, conclusion, and recommendations
19. What does the future of AWM in Africa look like under climate change?
- Edition: 1
- Published: December 1, 2025
- Imprint: Academic Press
- Language: English
TM
Tafadzwanashe Mabhaudhi
Tafadzwanashe Mabhaudhi works in the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), Pretoria, South Africa; Centre for Transformative Agricultural and Food Systems, School of Agricultural, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
Affiliations and expertise
International Water Management Institute (IWMI), Pretoria, South Africa; Centre for Transformative Agricultural and Food Systems, School of Agricultural, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South AfricaAS
Aidan Senzanje
Aidan Senzanje holds a PhD in Agricultural Engineering from Colorado State University (USA) and is currently a Senior Lecturer in the Bioresources Engineering Programme at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa) lecturing in irrigation engineering and soil and water conservation engineering. His research interests are in irrigation technology, agricultural water management and the water-energy-food nexus. He was previously a guest editor for the Journal of Physics and Chemistry of the Earth.
Affiliations and expertise
Senior Lecturer, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, South AfricaOC
Olufunke Cofie
Olufunke Cofie works in at the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) in Accra, Ghana.
Affiliations and expertise
International Water Management Institute (IWMI), Accra, Ghana