ABSTRACT
Africa is the second largest continent after Asia with a total area of 30.22 million km2 (including the adjacent islands). It has great rivers such as the River Nile, which is the longest in the world and flows a distance of 6650 km, and the River Congo, which is the deepest in the world, as well as the second largest in the world in terms of water availability. Yet, Africa also has vast stretches of arid, semiarid, and desert lands with little or no water. Further, Africa’s population is projected to increase by four times by the year 2100, reaching about four billion from the current population of little over one billion. Food insecurity and malnutrition are already highest in Africa (Heidhues et al., 2004) and the challenge of meeting the food security needs of the fastest-growing continent in the twenty-first century is daunting. So, many solutions are thought of to ensure food security in Africa. These ideas include such measures as increasing irrigation in a continent that currently has just about 2% of the global irrigated areas (Thenkabail et al., 2009a, 2010), improving crop productivity (kg m−2), and increasing water productivity (kg m−3). However, an overwhelming proportion of Africa’s agriculture now takes place on uplands that have poor soil fertility and water availability (Scholes, 1990). Thereby, the interest in developing sustainable agriculture in Africa’s lowland wetlands, considered by some as the “new frontier” in agriculture, has swiftly increased in recent years. The lowland wetland systems include the big wetland systems that are prominent and widely recognized (Figure 9.1) as well as the less prominent, but more widespread, inland valley (IV) wetlands (Figures 9.2 through 9.8) that are all along the first to highest order river systems. African wetlands (MAW, 2014). These are: “Areas of marsh, fen, peatland or water, whether natural or artificial, permanent or temporary, with water that is static or flowing…” (RAMSAR, 2004). But, these <italic>do not</italic> include inland valley wetlands. https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780429089435/9c570d80-7548-4c77-8c7f-d7be50eaec81/content/fig9_1.jpg" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> Depiction of wetlands. https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780429089435/9c570d80-7548-4c77-8c7f-d7be50eaec81/content/fig9_2.jpg" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> (From WARDA, Medium Term Plan 2007–2009, Charting the Future of Rice in Africa.Africa Rice Center (WARDA), Cotonou, Republic of Benin, 2006.)
