Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire and Seoul, Republic of Korea, October 31, 2024– Solar powered irrigation systems have a massive potential to increase small-farmers productivity, improve food security and farmers’ livelihoods, strengthen their resilience to climate change, and significantly contribute to ensuring environmental sustainability in sub-Saharan Africa, according to a new Technical Report released today by the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI). 

The Report, titled “Solar Powered Irrigation Systems (SPIS) Potential and Perspectives in sub-Saharan Africa”, is based on comprehensive results gathered over a period of two years of groundwork with small-holder farmers in Burkina Faso, Ethiopia and Uganda. It provides a glimpse into how it is important to support African farmers transition from rain-fed agriculture to more climate resilient systems. It evaluates and demonstrates the impact of adopting climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices on farm yields, assesses the productivity of key agricultural crop value chains and showcases an approach to locally mainstream CSA to enhance value chain development. 

The Report authors found that solar-powered irrigation systems and technologies – even when done at a small-scale level- have a massive potential to improve food security, livelihoods and climate resilience for millions of smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. 

“Dependence on rainfed subsistence agriculture coupled with the significant degradation of land and forest resources exacerbate the impacts of climate change on farmers’ productivity, amplifies their vulnerabilities and limits their adaptative capacity to the impacts and risks associated with climate change. Solar powered irrigation systems offer an opportunity to overcome these challenges by limiting reliance on rain-fed farming, improving farmers’ resilience, increasing productivity, improving their welfare and reducing pollution from petrol- powered systems,” said Omar Diouf, the report’s lead Author. 

GGGI works with Member States to promote an enabling environment for developing and adopting innovative climate-smart agriculture solutions. Such initiatives are implemented across GGGI’s Member and Partner States across the continent.  

“Climate-smart agriculture is critical to address the multifaceted challenges facing Africa’s smallholder farmers, including the pressing climate change crisis. By investing in building the capacity of smallholder farmers to effectively deliver and scale resilient-agriculture initiatives and ensuring that farmers have the tools, skills and resources they needed to increase their productivity, access climate finance and strengthen their resilience to climate change, we contribute directly to guaranteeing food security for communities and families in Africa. These initiatives also lay ground for a resilient, equitable and inclusive green future for everyone across the continent,” Dr. Malle Fofana, Africa Regional Director at GGGI, said.  

The Flagship Technical Report shows that solar-powered irrigation systems are cost-effective, environmentally friendly and improve productivity – compared to other methods of subsistence farming and diesel-powered irrigation. For instance, in Uganda, the study found that farmers with solar irrigation systems increased their production by 193% on average annually. In Burkina Faso, farmers who replaced diesel-powered irrigation pumps with solar-powered systems gained on average between XOF 55,582 (USD 101.05) and XOF 78,154 (USD 142.1) every three months depending on their location and type of fossil fuel used in the past. 

Nevertheless, the Report notes that while scaling-up CSA practices and solar irrigation in Africa has a huge potential, it remains hugely untapped and underdeveloped, still lacks enough investments, and requires innovative options to maximize its benefits. The Report also raises the need of tailored policies to avoid overexploitation of groundwater. 

You can Read the full Report here: Solar Powered Irrigation Systems (SPIS) Potential and Perspectives in sub-Saharan Africa — Global Green Growth Institute