Carbon Footprint of Agricultural Development: the Potential Impact of Uptake of Small Electric and Diesel Pumps in Five Countries in Sub Saharan Africa

The study finds that carbon emissions from smallholder irrigation pumps in five Sub-Saharan African countries are currently a negligible fraction of national agricultural emissions and are unlikely to become significant even under high-adoption scenarios. However, the study warns that increased pump uptake may pose a more immediate threat to local water resources, particularly in semi-arid regions like Burkina Faso.

• Carbon dioxide emissions from smallholder irrigation pumps in the five studied countries are currently very low, representing less than one per cent of each country's agricultural sector emissions in 2010.
• Even in a hypothetical 'worst-case' scenario where every smallholder farmer uses a pump, the resulting carbon dioxide emissions would still remain below one per cent of the current agricultural sector totals.
• Water resource depletion is identified as a more significant environmental concern than carbon emissions, especially at the local level. In Burkina Faso, if pump adoption doubles every five years, water abstraction could reach approximately 28 per cent of the total renewable water resource by 2025.
• Ethiopia is projected to have the highest potential for carbon dioxide emissions from diesel pump irrigation among the studied countries, while Zambia is projected to have the lowest.
• The carbon footprint of pumps in Sub-Saharan Africa is lower than that observed in India, primarily because pumps in Africa generally lift water from shallower depths (typically not below eight metres) compared to those in India.
• While diesel pumps were the primary focus due to low rural electrification, electric pumps could be a cleaner alternative in most of the studied countries because hydropower is the dominant energy source, except in Burkina Faso.

APA

Sugden, C. (2010). Carbon Footprint of Agricultural Development: the Potential Impact of Uptake of Small Electric and Diesel Pumps in Five Countries in Sub Saharan Africa. Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/Air-land-water-resources/carbon-footprint-agricultural-development.pdf

Chicago

Sugden, Catherine. Carbon Footprint of Agricultural Development: the Potential Impact of Uptake of Small Electric and Diesel Pumps in Five Countries in Sub Saharan Africa. Stockholm Environment Institute, 2010. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/Air-land-water-resources/carbon-footprint-agricultural-development.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Sugden |first1=Catherine |title=Carbon Footprint of Agricultural Development: the Potential Impact of Uptake of Small Electric and Diesel Pumps in Five Countries in Sub Saharan Africa |publisher=Stockholm Environment Institute |date=2010 |url=https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/Air-land-water-resources/carbon-footprint-agricultural-development.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{sugden2010carbon, author = {Sugden, Catherine}, title = {{Carbon Footprint of Agricultural Development: the Potential Impact of Uptake of Small Electric and Diesel Pumps in Five Countries in Sub Saharan Africa}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2010}, url = {https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/Air-land-water-resources/carbon-footprint-agricultural-development.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }