South Africa to buy food from Angola, Zambia, DRC and northern Mozambique

Writing in Farmer's Weekly (16 August 2013), Dr Anthony Turton (University of the Free State) predicts that arid areas in Southern Africa will expand northwards while the strength of rivers decrease. Within a decade, he says, Angola, Zambia, DRC and northern Mozambique will be producing food for the region.

Two-thirds of the global population will be living under water-stressed conditions by 2025. South Africa will face a shortfall of 30 billion cubic metres at this time. One of the country's major problems is evaporation (we thought we were smart by building all our dams in previous decades: these help us to lose water faster!)

Advice given to farmers (and the country) includes:

• Start to recycle water.
• Do your sums on how your use of water contributes to low-skilled jobs. As water scarcity increases, there will be calls for water to be proportioned away from agriculture to other sectors.
• Store water in underground aquifers rather than in dams.

Find the country's role players in water-related chapters of The Agri Handbook e.g. Water, Irrigation, Rainwater harvesting, Boreholes and windmills and Water storage.