I’m happy that I have finally submitted my MScCCAFS dissertation which I have been working on for the past 3 months. My work focused on investigating water availability for crop production in the Chongwe watershed of Zambia. I used the Water Evaluation and Planning system to quantify both water demand and supply delivered. Furthermore, I calculated the crop water requirements of Maize, Cassava, soybeans, and groundnuts in the study region. The trend clearly points to a future with limited water availability for crop production, especially for maize and cassava. Although the projections point towards the unsuitability of the study region for maize and cassava production, climate adaptation strategies such as breeding for drought/heat stress tolerance and water use efficiency can be beneficial. Furthermore, water-conserving farming practices such as mulching and cover cropping can help in alleviating the adverse impacts of water stress on smallholder farmer communities.
Total Monthly distribution of precipitation in the area where blue= 1969-2019 and Orange=2020-2035. The units are M m3 = Million cubic meter