Agricultural water demand and supply, governance, conservation, and implication for extension services in South Africa: a review.

Abstract

Pragmatic changes existed within the regulatory structures and institutionsfor water resource management in South Africa since 1994. The paper examined the trajectory of agricultural water demand and supply, governance, conservation, and implication for extension services. Prominent institutional repositories were consulted for this review including scientific materials obtained from the online library of various universities by engaging in Online Public Access CatLog (OPAC), Cat Plus and Digital Collections, and numerous scientific papers and grey literatures. However, the study answered the following questions:(i) Are there water demand and supply issues in South Africa? (ii) What are the water conservation approaches used in South Africa? (iii) What are the implications of water management for agricultural extension service in South Africa? The review nurtures government confidence in ameliorating management issues and recommended changesto address the financial, environmental, and capacity limitations inherent in water sector. Though the sector has witnessed considerable improvement since 1994, the performance of the sector in relation to its objectives have not been encouraging. The distribution of water for agriculture and industrial uses are still highly uneven with vagueness and lack of transparency with respect to institutional roles and responsibilities. The paper, therefore, endorse the up skilling of farmers to minimizing the negative environmental impacts of irrigation, reducing the production cost, and enhance the sustainability of irrigated farming in South Africa. Government and extension should do more to support and conscientize farmers towards appropriate irrigation systems aimed at minimizing water losses. There is a need for sustained efforts to manage existing water infrastructures by all stakeholders for the benefit of the farming communities.