The Potential of Fingerpond Systems to Increase Food Production From Wetlands in Africa (original) (raw)
Related papers
2006
Chapter 1 General introduction Chapter 2 Biophysical suitability of smallholder integrated aquaculture-agriculture systems (Fingerponds) in East Africa's Lake Victoria freshwater wetlands Chapter 3 Effects of soil characteristics and hydrology on the functioning of smallholderwetland aquacultureagriculture systems (Fingerponds) at the shores of Lake Victoria, Kenya Chapter 4 The effects of livestock manure on nutrient dynamics, water quality and fish yields in seasonal wetland fish ponds (Fingerponds) at the edge of Lake Victoria, Kenya Chapter 5 A quantitative assessment of nutrient flows in an integrated agriculture-aquaculture farming system at the shores of Lake Victoria, Kenya Chapter 6 Integration of smallholder wetland aquacultureagriculture systems (Fingerponds) into riparian farming systems at the shores of Lake Victoria, Kenya: socioeconomics and livelihoods Chapter 7 Smallholder integrated aquaculture (Fingerponds) in the wetlands of Lake Victoria, Kenya: assessing the environmental impacts with the aid of Bayesian networks
The Geographical Journal, 2007
This paper presents the results of experimental fingerponds: an integrated flood recession aquaculture-agriculture production system in the Lake Victoria wetlands in Kenya. The overall aim of the study is to assess the potential of fingerponds as a sustainable wetland farming system for improving food security at the subsistence level and within the context of the existing livelihood activities. The contribution of this new activity to rural household livelihoods is evaluated. Since it is a sustainable technology, based on natural events, the production level is intermediate and the benefits may not be high in the short term. Economic analysis shows that the gross margin and net income of fingerponds is about 752 and 197 Euros per hectare per year, respectively. This is about an 11% increase in the annual gross margin of an average rural household around Lake Victoria. The additional per capita fish supply is 3 kg per season or more from a 192 m 2 pond. The potential fish protein supply of 200 kg/ha is high compared with most existing terrestrial protein production systems. Fingerponds have the potential to contribute to household food security and to improve livelihoods. Sensitivity analysis indicates that biophysical variations, which may occur from one wetland to another, have implications for the functioning, and consequently the economic performance, of fingerponds. This reinforces the need for the integration of these systems into other household activities to buffer the household against potential risk.
Community strategies to promote sustainable wetland-based food security in rural areas of Zimbabwe
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Small scale farming on Wetland resource utilisation: a case study of Mandlanzini, Richards Bay
2009
Wetland utilisation by rural communities in South Africa poses a serious challenge for natural resource conservation. The growing rate of rural poverty, poor education and socio-cultural beliefs contribute towards the current plight of many wetlands. The challenge that faces wetland sustainability stems from the over utilisation of wetland resources for survival as well as cultural activities that are practiced. This study aimed at investigating the impact of various wetland activities performed on a daily basis by local communities of Mandlanzini in the quest for survival. The community groups were selected to study their way of life and their relation to their local environment in order to deepen the understanding of their activities and impact on the wetland. Household data collected, gave a clear picture of socioeconomic status of the community. The results of the study showed that community members, on the lower end of salary scales, were the ones who relied heavily on raising income by using resources available from the wetland. Research data showed that, there is a high demand for staple food such as 'amandumbe', banana, and sweet potatoes by the community under study. The study also showed that indigenous knowledge can play an important role towards the restoration of wetlands. Furthermore, as many community members practiced subsistence agriculture, most of their livestock depend on wetland resources. All these constituted good reasons why communities should be involved in wetland management and conservation viii TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER
Contribution of wetland resources to household food security in Uganda
Agriculture & Food Security, 2013
Background: In Uganda, nearly 1.4 million people are currently food insecure, with the prevalence of food energy deficiency at the country level standing at 37%. Local farmers are vulnerable to starvation in times of environmental stress, drought and floods because of dependence on rain-fed agriculture. Accordingly, the farmer's means of increasing food production has always been an expansion of area under cultivation from virgin and fragile areas, especially wetlands. Consequently, Uganda has lost about 11,268 km 2 of wetland, representing a loss of 30% of the country's wetlands from 1994 to 2009. While the environmental importance of wetland ecosystems is widely recognized, their contribution to household food security is still hardly explored. In this paper an assessment of the contribution of wetland resources to household food security and factors influencing use of wetland resources in Uganda are reported. Methods: A number of livelihood tools in food security assessment including focus group discussions, key informant interviews, direct observations and a household questionnaire survey, were used to collect the data. A total of 247 respondents from areas adjacent to wetlands were involved in the household questionnaire survey conducted in three agro-ecological zones that are frequently characterized as food insecure.
MANGROVES AND WETLANDS OF SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA: POTENTIAL FOR SUSTAINABLE LIVELIHOODS AND DEVELOPMENT
Wetlands in sub-Saharan African are classified as marine/coastal wetlands including mangroves, inland wetlands and man-made wetlands. They constitute rich and diversified sanctuaries for biodiversity conservation, eco-filters and flood-water retention. Their values are of extreme socioeconomic, cultural and ecological importance to various stakeholders at local communities, national and global levels. The main threats that lead to the degradation/loss of wetlands in Africa are both natural factors (e.g. from climatic factors such as drought) and anthropogenic factors (e.g., deforestation, dams construction, urbanisation and poor management) driven by population growth and economic development. Maintaining a balance between the needs of the local communities and ecological integrity of the remaining wetlands ecosystems has been a challenging national and regional cause for concern for governments and different development partners in the region especially as wetland issues transcend national boundaries. Although the governments in the region have elaborated far-reaching biodiversity conservation policies, there is still not adequate provision for wetlands as they tend to treat wetlands in a rather scanty and scattered manner in various sectoral policies. However, there is imminent evolution towards wetlands policy development into which mangrove/wetland conservation and sustainable use issues are being mainstreamed. This long-term mainstreaming task can be traced from the signatory of international wetlands-related conventions including the Ramsar Convention of Wetlands, translated into national action programmes including Poverty Reduction Papers with sectoral legal instruments; multi-actors national and regional wetland mainstreaming projects; and programmes geared towards community sensitisation, capacity building, local, national and regional institutional development targeting sustained livelihood and poverty alleviation issues coming under different integrated approaches e.g. Integrated Wetlands Management (IWM), Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM), Integrated Water Catchment Management (ICM), Integrated River Basin Management (IRBM) and Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM).These projects and initiatives undertake national and regional wetlands inventories and/or restoration schemes leading to the establishment of national and transboundary wetlands protected areas including Ramsar Sites otherwise known as 'Peace Parks'; the emerging national and regional action networks especially by civil society and political organisations that mainstream xxiii wetland and environmental issues into their agenda and programmes. Good progress has also been made in the field, on poverty reduction by working with local communities in wetland areas. This has been achieved by improving livelihood conditions of local communities (increased income levels, employment, enterprise development, ecotourism development, etc) and by creating opportunities and mechanisms by many organisations for value addition and rates of return based on secured access and good governance. Payments for ecosystems services schemes as innovative voluntary financing mechanisms are also developing. The paper further highlights the level of achievements of these mainstreaming strategies, processes, shortcomings and way forward towards safeguarding livelihoods and the developmental drives in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Inclusive and Ecologically-Sound Food Crop Cultivation at Tropical Non-Tidal Wetlands in Indonesia
AGRIVITA Journal of Agricultural Science
Productivity and cropping intensity on non-tidal wetland in South Sumatra are considerably low and has been underutilized up to now. The majority of farmers in this ecosystem are smallholders with limited adoption capacity on introduced technologies and modern agricultural practices. The objectives of this research were (1) to comprehensively capture multidimensional constrains that restrained local farmers in increasing their agricultural productivity; and (2) to identify, assess, and develop substantially-relevant, financially-affordable, and sociallyacceptable agricultural technologies and practices for smallholder farmers to increase productivity. This research was organized in three main activities: qualitative research employing Grounded Theory procedure, quantitative questionnaire-guided survey, and a series of laboratory and field experiments. The research results indicated that the main constraints in increasing productivity and cropping intensity on the non-tidal wetland in South Sumatra include (1) unpredictable flooding occurrence and low soil nutrients content (agronomic constraint), (2) low financial and technology adoption capacity of local farmers (economic constraint), and (3) public policy has not significantly escalated farmer's motivation to increase food production (social and institutional constraint). This research suggests that multidimensional (technical, financial, ecological, and socio-cultural) approaches should be integrated in collective efforts for sustainably intensifying food production on the non-tidal wetland.
Sustaining wetland ecosystems in the West and central African Sahel
IAHS-AISH publication, 2002
The Senegal and the Niger rivers and Lake Chad, the dominant river/lake systems in West Africa had wetlands covering a surface area of about 6.7 10 6 ha. However, due to the combined effects of climate variability and water projects (dams and dykes), more than 40% of the area had been lost. Yet the Sahel wetlands are the lifelines for the inhabitants of the zone. The wetlands have many uses: for crop and grazing lands, fishing grounds and habitat for wildlife, and these multiple uses yield many products of water, food, fibres and energy. In order to save and sustain the wetland ecosystems certain effective strategic management tools should be employed.
Working Wetland Potential: An index to guide the sustainable development of African wetlands
Natural Resources Forum, 2009
Past experience shows that inappropriate agricultural development in wetlands can undermine sustainability and may have profound social and economic repercussions for people dependent on the range of ecosystem services provided by those wetlands. Nonetheless, there is escalating pressure to expand agriculture within wetlands due to increasing population, in conjunction with efforts to increase food security. This paper describes the development of a semi-analytical framework for identifying, organizing and analyzing the complex factors that link people, agriculture and wetland ecosystems-an index of Working Wetland Potential (WWP). The method is based on a form of multi-criteria analysis that integrates biophysical and socioeconomic aspects of wetland utilization. The WWP index emerges from the aggregation of two values: the first arising from an appraisal of both the biophysical and socioeconomic suitability of using the wetland for agriculture; and the second resulting from an assessment of the possible hazards, in relation to both social welfare and the ecological character of the wetland. Hence, the approach provides a way to explicitly integrate biophysical and social aspects of wetland utilization in a single index to enable an initial assessment of the suitability of using a wetland for agriculture. Results from three contrasting wetlands in sub-Saharan Africa are presented.n arf_1214 99..110