Scientists and agricultural experts are relentlessly working in fields and laboratories to address food insecurity across Africa.

The continent faces severe food insecurity, with nearly 20 per cent of its population undernourished and 868 million people experiencing moderate to severe food security, including 342 million facing severe food insecurity, according to the latest statistics.

Food insecurity in nearly all African countries is also linked to poverty and health concerns, a situation worsened since 2019, with the Covid-19 pandemic and other factors contributing to the increase.

Africa is the continent with the highest proportion of people facing hunger, affecting an estimated 57 million more since the start of the pandemic. Eastern, western and central Africa are particularly affected, with eastern Africa consistently having the largest number of people facing food insecurity.

This critical situation has prompted agricultural experts and scientists to intensify efforts in conducting research and devise ways of addressing food insecurity through increased safe agricultural production methods.

That requires strengthening food systems through investment in agricultural infrastructure, promoting sustainable farming practices, and improving food storage and transportation.

Dry regions such as those in eastern Africa, particularly in the Horn of Africa and the Sahel, bear the brunt of food insecurity. Scientists have in recent years developed an innovation called agrovoltaics that increases climate resilience across food systems to counter rising hunger and malnutrition in such regions.

Heightened efficiency

Agrovoltaic farming could be a solution to, not just one, but both of these problems. It uses the shaded space underneath solar panels to grow crops. This in turn increases land-use efficiency, as it lets solar farms and agriculture share ground, rather than making them compete against one another.

Kenya has already experienced the benefits of agrovoltaics through a project that ran between 2020 and 2023 involving the universities of Sheffield, York and Teesside in the UK, the Stockholm Environment Institute, World Agroforestry, the Centre for Research in Energy and Energy Conservation, and the African Centre for Technology Studies.

The first agrivoltaics system opened at Isinya, Kajiado County in early 2022. Instead of being mounted close to the ground like traditional solar arrays, panels were constructed several metres high, with gaps in between them, allowing crops to be grown underneath, protecting them from heat stress and water loss.

The favourable growing conditions mean that a greater ranger of higher value crops can be grown, improving farmer incomes in disadvantaged rural areas. Areas previously unviable as growing environments may now be used.

Judy Wairimu, an agronomist based at the Latia Agripreneurship Institute in Kajiado, said cabbages grown under the 185,345-watt solar panels were a third bigger and healthier, than those grown in control plots with the same amount of fertiliser and water. Aubergine and lettuce showed similar results, while maize grown under the same conditions was taller and healthier.

“The pragmatic reason behind this technology – doubling up the output of the same patch of earth to generate power and cultivate food – can go a long way towards helping people with limited land resources,” said Wairimu.

Because of this, the team of researchers said the system is akin to “harvesting the sun twice”. Project lead Professor Sue Hartley said the research would stimulate greater interest in this novel technology.

Sometimes abbreviated as agriPV, agrovoltaics or agrivoltaics, is the practice of combining solar energy production with agricultural activities on the same land, creating a synergistic system that benefits both.

Clean energy

It involves using solar photovoltaic (PV) panels on agricultural land to generate electricity while simultaneously allowing for agricultural activities like crop cultivation or livestock grazing.

Solar panels produce clean energy, contributing to renewable energy goals, Agrovoltaics maximises land utilisation by combining two purposes on the same area. Solar panels can create a microclimate that provides shade, wind protection, and potentially improved temperature and humidity conditions, beneficial for certain crops.

The innovation creates additional revenue streams as farmers can generate income from both agricultural products and the sale of electricity produced by the solar panels.

Applications include growing crops under the shades of the panels, allowing livestock to graze under the panels, using solar panels to power greenhouse operations and integrating beekeeping with solar farms.

Agrovoltaics promotes sustainable land use and renewable energy production, enhances resilience, helping buffer crops from heat and water stress, and provides economic opportunities by creating new income streams for farmers and communities.

This revolutionary technology has been gaining attention worldwide, including the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Blessed with abundant solar radiation, the region has one of the highest levels of solar energy potential globally, with some areas reaching a specific yield of over 2000kWh/kWp annually.

These conditions for solar energy make MENA countries prime candidates for adopting and developing agrovoltaics. The International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) is developing agrovoltaics to make countries make do with limited water resources while addressing growing energy demand and food insecurity.

ICARDA scientists are elevating this innovation by installing and running collective low-energy drip irrigation systems powered by custom-designed agrovoltaic systems for more resource-efficient agricultural practices.

“In addition to avoiding competition for land resources between energy and agriculture, adopting agrovoltaic systems can help save water and generate clean and affordable energy, which in turn can help improve food production in drylands,” says ICARDA soil, water and agronomy team leader, Dr Vinay Nangia.

By integrating agriculture and solar energy production on the same land, agrovoltaics provides the right amount of shading to crops, further helping conserve water by reducing the plants’ direct sunlight exposure, and lowering evaporation rates and their overall water needs.

ICARDA highlighted agrovoltaics last week on Saturday when the world marked World Water Day under the theme ‘Glacier Preservation’. As distinct as they may seem, glaciers and drylands have something in common: water.  In abundance for the former, in paucity for the latter. Sadly, both are under the threat of climate change.

While glaciers are melting at an ever-increasing pace, threatening to alter the water cycle in ways that can heavily affect people and the environment, drylands are more than ever exposed to water scarcity.

Sustainable synergy

By integrating solar panels into farming practices, agrivoltaics address two goals at once – they support sustainable crop growth with lower water uses and generate renewable energy. This allows farmers to mitigate heat stress impacts and tap into new income streams, strengthening the local economy while addressing more pressing challenges, such as water management.

Agrovoltaics provide a better alternative to traditional water-lifting methods that often rely on fossil-fuel powered pumps, offering a more reliable option for farmers in remote agricultural areas with limited access to electricity.

Covering irrigation canals with solar panels is another innovative water-saving approach that reduces evaporation loss and aquatic weed growth. ICARDA promotes the benefits of integrating solar panels into agriculture as a commitment to green transition,

Through participatory, hands-on training and mentorship, ICARDA ensures farmers effectively adopt agrovoltaic systems, which helps stabilise their incomes and consequently create lasting changes in rural livelihoods.

Amid water scarcity, food insecurity, and climate change challenges, innovative solutions like agrovoltaics offer hope for synergy in sustainable agriculture, water management, agriculture productivity and energy production.