Many common African crops have drought-tolerant qualities, which is ideal as water scarcity persists throughout the continent. The resilient varieties allow smallholders to remain stable, growing despite poor nutrient density in soils. Farmers can leverage these crops’ strength alongside smart irrigation to enhance operations for greater revenue and climate resilience. These techniques will empower workers in countless nations to yield better harvests.
What Drought-Resistant Crops Are Viable in Africa’s Climate?
Drought-tolerant crops vary throughout Africa. While they need little water, some plants thrive in more humid coastal regions, while others are meant to restore poor soils in the arid east. Underutilized options include sorghum and amaranth despite their strength and nutritional value. Other crops include:
- Millet
- Teff
- Sweet potatoes
- Quinoa
- Cassava
- Cowpeas
- Cactus pears
- Taro
- Moringa
- Pigeon peas
Farmers have used the same best practices to foster these plants for centuries in addition to more high-maintenance varieties like maize and rice. Drip irrigation and rainwater harvesting have been staples for ensuring a healthy growth cycle for these species, alongside organic matter supplementation and companion planting.
Many projects are discovering ways to modify these crops to make them more reliable in dry conditions. For example, a six-year partnership with experts from South Africa, Uganda and Kenya has crafted a maize hybrid with drought-tolerant genes. Studies like this could expand what is able to grow in Africa’s varied climates.
Why Should Farms Consider Smart Tech for Watering?
The impacts of the climate crisis are compromising even the most drought-tolerant species. Researchers observed varieties in southeastern Senegal, known for harvesting fonio, sorghum and Bambara groundnut. Typically, they succeed in low-quality soil, but numerous external factors are reducing their field presence, like socioeconomic inequality and poor infrastructural resilience to climate change.
Restoring the reputation of these crops is crucial for preserving the culture and economies of African farmers. Colonial agriculturism incentivizes these communities to invest in Western products at the expense of indigenous crop diversity.
Profits and business stability seem like justification, but smarter irrigation practices will restore traditional agricultural dynamics. These strategies will celebrate the best drought-resistant crops on the continent.
The influences complicate how productive drought-tolerant crops can be, but reinforcing farms with the right watering techniques and technologies can overcome adversity. It reduces the amount of environmental influences the land is vulnerable to, making processes more lucrative.
Hopefully, this will lead to funding more infrastructure-based implementations, like crop protections against severe weather, as economic stressors become less prevalent. Irrigation enhancements are effective at reducing poverty struggles by:
- Increasing yield to lower local food costs
- Encouraging crop diversification and density
- Boosting employee wages
How Does Smart Irrigation Benefit Plants?
Smart irrigation systems comprise ground-embedded sensors that monitor the soil’s moisture against the weather conditions. What do the insights reveal?
Improvements in Water Efficiency
In drought-prone areas, many watering efforts disappear through evaporation and runoff. Smart irrigation helps water get straight to the roots when it is most critical. It prevents farmers from overwatering and wasting resources that could damage growth cycles in the long term. Smart irrigation could lower consumption by up to 30% compared to typical methods.
Labor Cost Reductions
Workers will be able to spend less time manually tending to plants and more energy on other high-value tasks on the property. Many smart irrigation systems include automation, allowing workers to use an interface to communicate with the sensors. Farms can choose the controller type to best suit their team:
- Demand-initiated: Modifies the timing based on real-time data
- Bypass: Stops or allows scheduled watering to take place
- Soil moisture-based: Activates irrigation when soil is dry
The functionalities are ideal for smallholder farms with fewer resources. Controllers and interfaces give workers greater mobility and agency in how they tend to the crops.
Boosted Crop Yields
Even drought-tolerant species will grow better with more water and nutrients. Smart sensors learn what types of plants are nearby and can water based on soil dryness and the type of crop it is. Therefore, smart irrigation supports a more productive cycle and potentially faster harvesting times by curating distribution to best fit what the plant would want in ideal circumstances.
How Can Agriculturalists Design Farms for Resilience?
Smart irrigation works well alongside other design choices to optimize resource use and transmission. Farmers can incorporate ideas from these techniques to make the technology even more efficient.
Agrivoltaics and Artificial Intelligence
Farmers should try to access renewable energy generators, as solar panels may be some of the best installations they can make. Grounding them over rows acts like a tree in how it provides shade yet doubles as an electricity source. They can work alongside other technologies like AI. Smart inverters with AI capabilities distribute power to equipment, like irrigation systems, without wastage.
If businesses have yet to install panels, they can consider looking into aggregate programs with solar renewable energy credits. These demand-based systems require utilities to allocate a portion of their services to solar.
Crop Rotation and Diversification
Instead of monoculture farming and similar methods, rotating crops and diversifying as much as possible despite relying on drought-resilient types is crucial for the soil. It boosts its fertility so it could eventually support other varieties.
Diversification also helps smart irrigation by making the land healthier and stronger against climate stressors. This means if severe conditions strike, it will not put stress on irrigation technologies.
Resource Conservation
Farmers must conserve soil and water to help irrigation be as effective as possible. Techniques like contour plowing and terracing prevent erosion, retaining water for longer. This makes it less likely to fall into drought conditions even if the surrounding region is.
Conserving water will also alleviate burdens on workers and technology. Rainwater barrels are perfect complements during the driest part of the season.
Agroforestry
Farmers can find native tree varieties to plant around the farm to make soils stronger. It also adds biodiversity, encouraging local pollinators to support growth. The additional shade will improve irrigation efforts by further reducing the chance of evaporation. Using the smart systems with trees can also add a new vertical to agricultural businesses. Studies show it can improve fruit yields and fertilizer management.
Water Smarter
The future of agriculture in Africa depends on timing watering. Scarcity demands small and large farms make the most of what they have with a combination of drought-resistant crops and smart irrigation. These symbiotic strategies establish stability for many businesses and families and provide more time to tackle systemic challenges like accessibility and climate defenses.
