Rapid expansion of irrigated agriculture in the Senegal River Valley following the 2008 food price crisis

Thomas P Higginbottom, Roshan Adhikari, Tim Foster

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The expansion of irrigated croplands throughout the 20th century boosted global agricultural productivity, yet limited improvement occurred in sub-Saharan Africa where many irrigation schemes and policies under-delivered. We mapped the distribution of croplands under active irrigation between 1986 and 2020 for one of Africa's largest and most important transboundary river basins – the Senegal River Valley (SRV); using Landsat imagery with a Random Forest classifier and Hidden Markov Model. We document two distinct epochs of irrigation development. Initially, a period of stagnation where less than 900 ha per year was added, lasting until 2008. Followed by a boom phase of rapidly expanding intensively irrigated production with ∼ 9,000 ha per year added for the last 12 years. These epochs overlap with national agricultural policy frameworks: the 1980s laissez-faire policies limited state involvement in agriculture and promoted Asian imports; followed by a more interventionist period focused on promoting domestic production following the food price crisis of 2008.
Original languageEnglish
JournalEnvironmental Research Letters
Early online date9 Dec 2022
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 9 Dec 2022

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