Agricultural water management and livelihoods in the crop-livestock systems of the Volta Basin
With mixed crop-livestock systems projected to be the principal source of food in developing countries in the coming decades, opportunities exist for
Agricultural water management and livelihoods in the crop-livestock systems of the Volta Basin
With mixed crop-livestock systems projected to be the principal source of food in developing countries in the coming decades, opportunities exist for smallholders to participate and benefit from emerging crop and livestock markets in the Volta Basin. Given the economic, social and environmental vulnerability due to high water scarcity and variability in the basin, improvements in agricultural water management (AWM) are needed to ensure sustainable benefits. A survey was conducted among 326 crop-livestock households in four water scarce sites of the basin in Burkina Faso and Ghana to characterize households in terms of access to water, services and information, AWM intensity and livelihoods, and to explore the linkages between these characteristics.
The sources of water were more diverse for study sites in Ghana than in Burkina, allowing different types of AWM strategies. Most of the farmers perceived a strong positive impact of AWM strategies on their livelihoods. Almost 70%