Description: This is
a VOA Special English Technology Report.
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Text:
A new study in West Africa shows how farm irrigation
systems powered by the sun can produce more food and
money for villagers. The study in Benin found that
solar-powered pumps are effective in supplying
water, especially during the long dry season.
Sub-Saharan Africa is the part of the world with the
least food security. The United Nations Food and
Agriculture Organization estimates that more than
one billion of the world's people faced hunger last
year. Around two hundred sixty-five million of them
live south of the Sahara Desert. Lack of rainfall is
one of their main causes of food shortages.
Jennifer Burney from Stanford University in
California led the study. The research team helped
build three solar-powered drip irrigation systems in
northern Benin.
Between thirty and thirty-five women used each
system to pump water from the ground or a stream.
Each woman was responsible for farming her own one
hundred twenty square meters of land.
They also farmed other land collectively. The
solar-powered irrigation systems produced an average
of nearly two metric tons of vegetables per month.
During the first year, the women kept a monthly
average of almost nine kilograms of vegetables for
home use. They sold the surplus produce at local
markets.
The earnings greatly increased their ability to buy
food during the dry season which can last from six
to nine months.
People in the two villages with the systems were
able to eat three to five more servings of
vegetables per day. But making the surplus available
at markets also had a wider effect.
The study compared the villages with two others
where women farmed with traditional methods like
carrying water in buckets. The amount of vegetables
eaten in those villages also increased, though not
as much.
The researchers note that only four percent of the
cropland in sub-Saharan Africa is irrigated. Using
solar power to pump water has higher costs at first.
But the study says it can be more economical in the
long term than using fuels like gasoline, diesel or
kerosene. And solar power is environmentally
friendly.
The study was published in January in the
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
And that's the VOA Special English Development
Report. You can post comments and learn about other
issues in the developing world at
voaspecialenglish.com.
Correction: Stanford researchers studied the impact
of the irrigation systems but did not build them, as
this story suggested. The project was financed and
built by the Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF), a
nongovernmental organization.
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