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Agricultural Soil and Water Conservation Issues in East Africa

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Global Degradation of Soil and Water Resources

Abstract

East Africa remains one of the most severely affected regions impacted by food insecurity with an increasing number of undernourished people (NEPAD 2013). The sustainable management of agricultural land and water resources is recognized as essential to achieve global food security. Almost 70% of the population of East Africa rely on agriculture (NEPAD 2013), and land degradation combined with declines in soil fertility constitutes a major barrier resulting in poverty and decreases in per-capita food production especially in Ethiopia (Zeleke et al. 2010; Agegnehu et al. 2014). Limited irrigation water resources and the deficiency of irrigation infrastructures have also, until now limited yield production, especially in smallholder farming systems experiencing climatic stress (Barron et al. 2015). Therefore, analyzing soil and water conservation issues should be considered and prioritized in the different countries of East Africa.

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Rakotovao, N.H. et al. (2022). Agricultural Soil and Water Conservation Issues in East Africa. In: Li, R., Napier, T.L., El-Swaify, S.A., Sabir, M., Rienzi, E. (eds) Global Degradation of Soil and Water Resources. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-7916-2_4

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