The Challenge of Food Security and the Water-Energy-Food Nexus: Burundi Case Study

There is increasing concern regarding how to sustainably meet the basic needs of a growing population with a continuously decreasing resource base. This study analyses the water-energy-food nexus in Burundi. The country experiences challenging demographic pressures which increase the demand for food, energy, and freshwater. Yet strategies developed to meet requirements lead to natural resource depletion and degradation. Being a resource-poor country, the population depends mainly on agriculture for food, labor, and income. In order to increase food production, agriculture was intensified using traditional methods, mainly by clearing new, mostly marginal land, increasing cultivation cycles per year. The overexploitation of land decreased the soil fertility and yields, and increased deforestation and soil erosion. This has resulted in mass impoverishment of farmers and a growing malnutrition rate in the countryside. On the other hand, poverty often correlates directly with the type of energy supply and food security. Energy is provided mainly by biomass through firewood, charcoal, peat, and agricultural residues, which implies further deforestation. These factors increase the pressure on existing forest areas both for the reclamation of new agricultural land and for the production of firewood and charcoal. Finally, Burundi is classified by the UN as a country with economic water scarcity due to the population growth rate, low level of education, and a high poverty rate. The economic water scarcity is closely linked to energy production and to agriculture. More hydropower could reduce the extent of deforestation. The high deforestation rate reduces the infiltration rate (less groundwater recharge) and increases surface run-off. The latter is leading to higher erosion and loss of soil fertility, thus influencing agriculture and food security negatively.