Africa’s water efficiency would increase by 34% in 2030 as compared to 2016 due to an expected 60% increase in per capita GDP, according to research.
To conduct the study Capturing the drivers of crop water footprints in Africa and its spatial patterns, researchers considered 43 African countries over the period 2002-2016 to analyse the existence of spatial relationships in the WF. After confirming the presence of spatial dependence in the water footprint, researchers estimated an econometric model that incorporates this spatial dependence when analysing the drivers of the water footprint.
As potential drivers, the model included per capita GDP (as a socioeconomic variable measuring the level of development of countries), the temperature variation (to capture environmental conditions), and the percentage of agricultural land relative to the total area of the country (indicating the importance of agriculture and the existence of a more intensive or extensive agricultural system.
More at: Capturing the drivers of crop water footprints in Africa and its spatial patterns - ScienceDirect
