Food and Ecosystem Services in Eastern Africa

东非的食品和生态系统服务

• 批准号: NE/I003932/1
• 负责人: Rob Marchant
• 金额: $ 1.49万
• 依托单位: University of York
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2010 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE%2FI003932%2F1
• 关键词: Food; Ecosystem; Services; Eastern; Africa

The Millennium Development Goals pledged to halve the number of people suffering from hunger by 2015. We are still far from that goal. At the same time, the World Bank has assessed that economic growth from agriculture generates at least twice as much poverty reduction as growth from any other sector. Eastern Africa has severe food security problems often related to high inter-annual and decadal variability in rainfall. Tanzania and Kenya are amongst the few African countries where under-nourishment is judged to have increased in prevalence over the period 1990/2-2003/54. Rain-fed agriculture and pastoral activity dominates the subsistence farming sector, whilst large estate farms growing export crops depend on irrigation to smooth fluctuations in annual production levels. There is apparent potential in terms of both land and water resources, but the reality is that often these suitable areas for expansion are already providing valuable and necessary ecosystem services which support livelihoods and economies. It is therefore necessary to view the potential for agricultural development within the broader frame of other, often over-stressed, ecosystem services. For example, despite apparent abundance of water per capita on the national scale, most Tanzanian and Kenyan river basin authorities consider basins to be water-stressed as multiple conflicting demands are exceeding basin water supply. This is a particular issue in relation to the growth of intensive market-based crops (often for export). Agriculture is the major contributor to GDP in both countries, with other ecosystem services related income, such as that from tourism, providing important additions of foreign currency. Both Kenya and Tanzania have identified the expansion of agricultural productivity as the growth engine to address poverty and development. Tanzania is embarking on extensive irrigation agriculture to capture the potential of its river basins amid water scarcity in areas earmarked as of high irrigation potential. Balancing between water availability and expansion of irrigated agriculture in Tanzania is therefore an urgent task. Agriculture expansion and growth will be reliant on sustainable resource supply in terms of water and land and associated ecosystem services. However, the complexity of existing land use and its impact on water resources and associated ecosystem function is a major knowledge gap. To enable sustainable management of water and land resources, in an era of fast development and change, new approaches to assessment are needed. This project will, therefore, focus on three principal interlinked issues: water, land and associated ecosystem services for supporting poverty alleviation and development, in particular in rural areas in Kenya and Tanzania facing major challenges from socio-ecological and climate change.

千年发展目标保证将到2015年遭受饥饿的人数减半。我们仍然远非该目标。同时，世界银行评估了农业的经济增长至少产生的贫困减少的两倍是任何其他部门的增长。东非存在严重的粮食安全问题，通常与降雨际变化较高和十年际变化有关。坦桑尼亚和肯尼亚是少数几个在1990/2-2003/54期间判断不足的非洲国家。雨养农业和牧民活动主导了生计农业部门，而大型房地产农场种植出口农作物则取决于灌溉，以使年生产水平平稳波动。在土地和水资源方面，都有显然的潜力，但是现实是，这些合适的扩展领域通常已经提供了支持生计和经济的宝贵和必要的生态系统服务。因此，有必要查看其他更广泛的，经常受压力，生态系统服务的更广泛的框架内的农业发展的潜力。例如，尽管在国家规模上显然是人均水的丰富性，但大多数坦桑尼亚和肯尼亚河流域当局都认为盆地受压力，因为多种冲突的需求超过了盆地供水。这是与密集的基于市场的农作物（通常用于出口）的生长有关的特定问题。农业是两国GDP的主要贡献者，与其他生态系统服务相关的收入，例如旅游业，提供了重要的外币增加。肯尼亚和坦桑尼亚都认为农业生产力的扩大是解决贫困和发展的增长引擎。坦桑尼亚正在开展广泛的灌溉农业，以捕捉其河流盆地的潜力，因为在高度灌溉潜力的地区缺水。因此，坦桑尼亚的水的水量与灌溉农业的扩大之间的平衡是一项紧迫的任务。农业扩张和增长将依赖于水和土地和相关生态系统服务方面的可持续资源供应。但是，现有土地使用的复杂性及其对水资源和相关生态系统功能的影响是一个主要的知识差距。为了实现水和土地资源的可持续管理，在快速发展和变化的时代，需要进行新的评估方法。因此，该项目将重点关注三个主要相互联系的问题：水，土地和相关的生态系统服务，以支持贫困和发展，尤其是在肯尼亚和坦桑尼亚的农村地区面临社会生态和气候变化面临的重大挑战。