7 A Framework for IWRM in the Water-Energy-Food …
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in the West (IISD 2013). This approach frames agricultural production as a multidimensional agricultural system where several variables can be combined and result
in multi-purpose products.
The Water-Food-Energy nexus approach is natural, recognizing how men have
historically eaten and dressed, initially through the rational use of hunting and gathering, and later, by cropping food, textile and energy crops to eat, cook food, dress
and heat. These local production models have been lost over time due to modernization and excessive specialization of agriculture, inherited from colonization and the
agrarian revolution in the West.
The modern productivist agriculture model, which has succeeded in the West
albeit sometimes imperfectly, has not been successfully applied to tropical Africa,
especially the Sahel region. Reasons have been detailed elsewhere, including by
Dumont (1962), Mazoyer and Roudard (2002) and Stiglitz (2004).
Methodology, as it applies to the nexus approach, will also not be detailed here;
Burnett and Christopher (2018) lists three types of links among nexus components:
• Dependent and interconnected relationships for inputs/outputs (e.g., water used
to produce food or energy, plants used to produce energy, and/or energy used to
produce water or food);
• Competitive relationships, where the use of the same water source to produce
food, may compete with the use of water to produce energy (biofuels and/or
hydropower). Choices must therefore not be made exclusively on the basis of
financial criteria, but also account for social and environmental criteria, with
priority to achieving complementarity of uses, and
• Negative or positive external relations, wherein the use of one component risks
an impact on the quality and fate of another component.
The nexus approach must focus on these three types of relationships and seek to
minimize negative or regressive relationships, and has the potential to be an innovative
way to foster agricultural development in the Delta.
First attempts are being made to combine IWRM and the W-E-F nexus approach
among stakeholders. For example, the CSS, one of the first economic actors in the
Delta, and one of the most criticized for its sectoral approach and environmental
pollution, has implemented a research and development department that allows for
the progressive exploration of new integrated productions.
4.2 First Achievements: Example of the CSS
Several authors recognize sugar cane as an efficient renewable energy source, especially in developing countries (Hess et al. 2016). The Water-Food-Energy nexus
approach is now being implemented at CSS through the operation of a large, irrigated
11,300 ha sugar cane farm in the Delta (Fig. 4).
Agricultural production is intensive, fully irrigated and highly mechanized
(Fig. 5). Water needs are high (16,000 m
3 /ha/year) because of climate (average
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in the West (IISD 2013). This approach frames agricultural production as a multidimensional agricultural system where several variables can be combined and result
in multi-purpose products.
The Water-Food-Energy nexus approach is natural, recognizing how men have
historically eaten and dressed, initially through the rational use of hunting and gathering, and later, by cropping food, textile and energy crops to eat, cook food, dress
and heat. These local production models have been lost over time due to modernization and excessive specialization of agriculture, inherited from colonization and the
agrarian revolution in the West.
The modern productivist agriculture model, which has succeeded in the West
albeit sometimes imperfectly, has not been successfully applied to tropical Africa,
especially the Sahel region. Reasons have been detailed elsewhere, including by
Dumont (1962), Mazoyer and Roudard (2002) and Stiglitz (2004).
Methodology, as it applies to the nexus approach, will also not be detailed here;
Burnett and Christopher (2018) lists three types of links among nexus components:
• Dependent and interconnected relationships for inputs/outputs (e.g., water used
to produce food or energy, plants used to produce energy, and/or energy used to
produce water or food);
• Competitive relationships, where the use of the same water source to produce
food, may compete with the use of water to produce energy (biofuels and/or
hydropower). Choices must therefore not be made exclusively on the basis of
financial criteria, but also account for social and environmental criteria, with
priority to achieving complementarity of uses, and
• Negative or positive external relations, wherein the use of one component risks
an impact on the quality and fate of another component.
The nexus approach must focus on these three types of relationships and seek to
minimize negative or regressive relationships, and has the potential to be an innovative
way to foster agricultural development in the Delta.
First attempts are being made to combine IWRM and the W-E-F nexus approach
among stakeholders. For example, the CSS, one of the first economic actors in the
Delta, and one of the most criticized for its sectoral approach and environmental
pollution, has implemented a research and development department that allows for
the progressive exploration of new integrated productions.
4.2 First Achievements: Example of the CSS
Several authors recognize sugar cane as an efficient renewable energy source, especially in developing countries (Hess et al. 2016). The Water-Food-Energy nexus
approach is now being implemented at CSS through the operation of a large, irrigated
11,300 ha sugar cane farm in the Delta (Fig. 4).
Agricultural production is intensive, fully irrigated and highly mechanized
(Fig. 5). Water needs are high (16,000 m
3 /ha/year) because of climate (average