Wetlands and Food Production – What do they have to do with each other?

Come of think of this: what human being on earth can survive even for a second without air? What about land, water, the forests and mineral resources that are exploited for social and economic benefits? Indeed, would there ever have been any surviving human life without these components of nature?

Clearly air, land, water bodies, forests, and mineral resources are components of nature that are noticeably appreciated by humans as being beneficial to our existence. One does not require a scientifically awakened mentality to acknowledge that human lives are inherently linked to these components of nature.

However, in addition to these, there are other components of nature that equally play vital roles in sustaining human life, but which is often unappreciated, because their roles are not so visible and are rather difficult to understand. Wetlands are some of these components whose benefits are sometimes intangible to ordinary people. Fact is wetlands functions such as serving as floodplains to absorb excess rain water and recharging underground water reserves may be discernable to scientists. This is not to say that the non-scientific community does not comprehend the importance of wetlands – for local communities that depend on them as their source of livelihoods such as fishermen and rice farmers, understand the importance of wetlands, which are often misunderstood by others who do not depend directly on them.

The fact that all types of wetlands naturally absorb floodwater, has made wetlands to be considered by most people as waste places contributing to the spread of malaria among other things and therefore must be converted for other land uses. Notwithstanding, this aspect of wetlands function help to diminish the destructive nature of flooding.  It must be noted that flooding is a natural phenomenon that is important for maintaining the ecological functioning of wetlands.  For example, flooding is necessary for sustaining the delivery of many of the services that wetlands provide to millions of people; particularly, to those whose livelihoods depend on floodplains for flood-recession agriculture, pasturage and for fish production.

It is in recognition of the significant roles of wetlands that this year’s World Wetlands Day has been devoted to highlight the intimate linkage between wetlands and agriculture. The theme for the Day’s celebration “Wetlands and Agriculture: Partners for Growth,” stresses the need for the wetlands and agricultural sectors as well as the water sector to work together for the best shared outcomes.  The Ramsar Convention Secretariat choose this theme to also reflect on the declaration by the UN of this year – 2014 as the International Year of Family Farming. 

The essential roles of wetlands can be tapped for enhanced agricultural productivity through the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices which support healthy wetlands. The emphasis on sustainable agricultural practices is crucial in the sense that intensive agricultural use of drained and reclaimed forest wetlands for example, has been shown to result in severe carbon dioxide emissions as well as making low-lying areas prone to flooding. 

In this regard, developments in South-East Asia, where vast areas of tropical forest wetlands are being converted into oil palm plantations, should be of great concern. This also brings to mind the worrying trend where large tracts of land (including wetlands) particularly in developing countries like Ghana, are being converted for the cultivation of commercial crop species such as pine apples. From the perspective of sustainability and in view of its contribution to climate change, reclamation of wetlands for agriculture should be strongly discouraged.

Historically, humans have been cultivating land for food production, with human settlements occurring mostly in fertile areas along rivers, which form part of the wetlands systems. Riverine wetlands have been recognized as valuable land areas for food and fodder production, because they have fertile soils as a result of regular sediment deposition during flood events. Access to waterways for transport was a major additional advantage. In the course of history, wetlands have been reclaimed for agriculture in many parts of the world with ever more effective drainage and land amelioration measures. The natural wetland ecosystems reclaimed in this way have lost much of their original character, leading to reduced biodiversity and reduced performance of functions other than crop productivity.

According to the 2005 edition of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment: “50 percent of … floodplains has been lost mostly through conversion to intense agricultural use in North America, Europe and Australia.” Even though wetlands protection is a mandatory priority for the 159 nations that have as at 2009 ratified the Ramsar Convention, wetlands continue to be under threat of being drained and reclaimed. The UN system projects an alarming growth of the world population in the next 25 years that will require a 50 percent increase for food products by 2030. 

Additionally, there is also a growing trend to grow crops for use in biofuel production and at the same time, measures to enhance climate change neutral economic activities will lead to initiatives to plant forests in open areas, including non-forested wetlands. All these developments will lead to a greater pressure to reclaim still remaining natural areas including wetlands for agricultural purposes.  These might leave the water regime of the wetlands intact, but still disturb the ecosystem through the use of fertilizers or pesticides.  Consequently, important aspects of the wetlands character will therefore be harmed and functions other than productivity may still be diminished or destroyed.

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment has in recent times shown that global food production has doubled in the past 40 years, and has so far been able to keep pace with the increasing human population. However, the assessment also showed that this major accomplishment has been

realized at the expense of major losses in biodiversity, disruption of global element cycles, problematic destruction of freshwater resources, and loss of regulating ecosystem functions.

The challenge for the next 25 years will be that food production will have to increase by another 50 % merely to match the projected growth of the population as indicated by the UN System. Given that at present there are still food shortages, and that the food habits of large parts of the human population are starting to shift to be more animal-based, the pressure to produce more food per area, as well as to reclaim more land for agriculture, is expected to increase strongly, according to the FAO.

The use of more flood-tolerant crop varieties may help to find sustainable solutions where agriculture, wetland ecosystem services and biodiversity can all benefit. In addition, it should be evaluated whether less intensive forms of agriculture could be used in semi-wetlands and lead to higher food production in a sustainable way, leaving intact species-rich wetland landscapes with additional benefits.

Also opportunities for agriculture in naturally functioning floodplains should be further investigated. The development and use of crop species with stronger flood tolerance could form part of the sustainable use of wetlands systems and thus, maximise the benefits of wetlands for agriculture. Besides, extensive use of wetlands without drastic reclamation measures and without fertilizer and pesticides might result in combinations of food production with other wetland services, while biodiversity remain more or less intact.

Researchers Jos T. A. Verhoeven and Time L. Setter in their report on Agricultural Use of Wetlands: Opportunities and Limitations, note: “It remains questionable whether major crop species could be made suitable for growth in wetlands environments.” They however, admit that further research in crop breeding could result in waterlogging tolerant crop species. Verjoeven and Setter acknowledge on-going plant breeding and genetic modification to develop crop species that are more flood-tolerant and salt-tolerant.

These developments are crucial in the face of the shrinking available arable lands due to factors including population pressure for livelihood enhancers such as improved human settlements. But there is the need to evaluate the overall success and further prospects of these developments. Under all circumstances, it is important that the development of waterlogging tolerant and or drought resistant crop species is done locally and with the engagement of local stakeholders.  

To ensure that wetlands in developing countries like Ghana continue to perform their natural functions, in-country scientists such as agronomists and ecologists must conduct joint researches on improving traditional wetland agricultural systems, and endeavour to create awareness among local communities and policy-makers of the importance of wetlands in supporting the food production chain and providing other services like water purification and biodiversity conservation. Through such an approach, considerable progress could be made in enhancing the well-being of wetlands and ensuring sustainable agricultural productivity. 

Wetlands are areas of land where water covers the soil either throughout the year or just at certain times of the year. They include: swamps, marshes, lakes, lagoons, mangroves, coral reefs and peatlands. In view of the important roles wetlands play, the United Nations Convention on Wetlands popularly known as Ramsar Convention instituted the 2^nd of February each year as World Wetlands Day. The Day, which has been celebrated since 1997, is use to raise public awareness of wetlands values and benefits as well as to promote their conservation and wise use. 

Ghana is endowed with different types of wetlands right from the coastal areas to the northern portions of the country.  They include: Keta, Songhor, Sakomo and Densu coastal wetlands, which are also wetlands of international significance, in that they serve as migratory routes for international birds.  Others are inland wetlands such as Amanzuri where Ghana’s only stilt community “Nzulezu” is sited, Owabi Wildlife Sanctuary, Afram Headwaters Forest Reserve, the Red Volta West Forest Reserve and the Morago West Forest Reserve.