{"id":1631,"date":"2026-10-21T21:24:27","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T21:24:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/waterfront\/?p=1631"},"modified":"2026-10-23T00:04:52","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T00:04:52","slug":"see-water-differently","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/waterfront\/2026\/10\/21\/see-water-differently\/","title":{"rendered":"From Field to Border: How Young African Farmers Are Learning to See Water Differently"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Thobo Marcelino is a young farmer with an analytical eye. A food scientist by training, the 21-year-old is keen to understand and optimize each of the systems that feed her nascent organic horticultural business in Botswana. Water has her attention. \u201cWe\u2019re wasting a lot of water,\u201d Marcelino admits. \u201cNot because we just want to. Because we don\u2019t really understand how we\u2019re supposed to take care of our systems.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marcelino is not alone in her frustration. Bandile Marrime, a young farmer and agricultural union leader from Eswatini, shares a similar desire to get a better handle on his farm\u2019s water use. \u201cWe over-irrigate sometimes,\u201d Marrime reflects, \u201cbecause we have no understanding of how much the plant needs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I got a chance to both hear about these challenges and a desire for more water literacy up close earlier this year, when EDF partnered with the Southern African Confederation of Agricultural Unions (SACAU) to create a water literacy course for young farmers from 10 countries. For the past four years, SACAU has operated a youth leadership program that trains around 20 representatives from national agricultural departments across southern Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year is the first time the program included a water focus, which EDF helped SACAU develop by adapting learnings from our Water Leadership Institute<\/a> in the western United States into a water literacy module tailored to southern Africa\u2019s challenges. Marcelino and Marrime joined 18 other young farmers to dive head first into five days of modules covering everything from hydrological science to transboundary water governance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the training drew to a close, we asked participants what improved water literacy might mean for their daily work. What, exactly, does it help a young farmer see?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"people
The course opens with Module 1, \u201cIntroduction to Water Resources.\u201d Over five days, it went from hydrological science to transboundary water governance.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Seeing the field<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For young digital-native farmers like Marcelino and Marrime, seeing water better means harnessing new data options. Nearly all the participants expressed a desire to better access and understand dynamic, field-specific information on water and soil. As Marrime put it, the training showed \u201cyou can use technology to see how much water you\u2019re putting in the ground, which in fact tells you how much water you should be putting in the ground and how much the plant needs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To give a sense of the possibilities, I shared EDF\u2019s experience co-developing OpenET<\/a> and the Groundwater Accounting Platform<\/a>. OpenET draws on satellite data to provide near-real-time information about crop water use at the field level; the Groundwater Accounting Platform is an open-source tool that helps growers, landowners and water managers track groundwater availability, use and budgets in near real time. While these specific platforms aren\u2019t yet available in southern Africa, remote sensing and digital water management applications are expanding rapidly worldwide, and we spent a significant portion of our discussions on how accessible, dynamic data can transform practices at every level, from field to transboundary basin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"2
Bandile Marrime (left), a young farmer and agricultural union leader from Eswatini, and Thobo Marcelino (right), a food scientist and organic horticulture farmer from Botswana. Both took part in the SACAU\u2013EDF water literacy course.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Seeing the well next door<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Better data also lets a farmer see past the fence line. The wells and boreholes that feel like private infrastructure are often drawing on a single shared aquifer \u2014 a connection that stays invisible until something goes wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Marcelino, the training made it visible. \u201cWe\u2019re over-abstracting from our borehole, which is something I honestly didn\u2019t think was a problem until I realized during our module that the way we\u2019ve been using water on our farm has also affected our neighbor\u2019s farm,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similar sentiments were echoed by other participants. One described how nearby mines extract groundwater from the same aquifer farmers rely on, forcing everyone\u2019s boreholes to chase the water deeper. The result is a slow, shared drawdown that no individual well owner can see on their own. Learning to see your impact on your neighbor\u2019s well is the first step toward managing a shared natural resource instead of a private supply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"farmer
Bandile Marrime (right) stakes tomatoes on a farm in Eswatini. Marrime says the training showed him how data can tell a farmer \u201chow much the plant needs.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Seeing across the border<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Widen the lens again and you reach the institutions, rights and borders that decide how shared water gets divided. The region\u2019s many international boundaries cut straight across key watersheds and groundwater basins, and participants were candid about the institutional and governance constraints that make community-level innovation an uphill task.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the training also surfaced a sense of stewardship that governance depends on. \u201cBefore, what I thought is that water is a God-given resource that anyone can use the way that they like,\u201d Marrime reflects. \u201cBut we learned about water governance and how it\u2019s important for other countries to get water as well, and also for us to get water \u2014 it\u2019s a shared resource.\u201d He\u2019s already carrying that conversation from national forums back home to young people and fellow farmers in his community. In doing so, he demonstrates the kind of stakeholder coordination that good water governance requires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"farmer
Thobo Marcelino holds a freshly harvested cabbage on her farm in Botswana. She hopes better data on water use will help her reduce her use of groundwater.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Seeing water everywhere<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For youth interested in a water-secure future, many of these challenges and ambitions are not confined to southern Africa. The same hunger and the same work of learning to see water differently is showing up wherever rural communities face an uncertain water future. It\u2019s what drives EDF\u2019s Water Leadership Institute<\/a> in the U.S., whose most recent cohort brought together graduates from both sides of the Arizona-Mexico border to manage water they visibly share. It\u2019s behind our work supporting rural water-sharing initiatives<\/a> in India, and behind our global push<\/a> to make groundwater, the most invisible resource of all, something communities can finally see and account for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Marrime and Marcelino, that shift is the whole point. \u201cBefore, my picture was different,\u201d Marrime says. \u201cI came in like a blank canvas. I got to see water in a different picture.\u201d Marcelino feels water literacy training \u201copened my eyes to so many things that we\u2019ve been doing wrong that we need to work on and improve, so that at the end of it all, we can all benefit properly and take care of our resources.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Building this water literacy program in partnership with SACAU is critical to me. Africa has the youngest population in the world and agriculture remains a major source of jobs for young people across the continent. The program\u2019s graduates are returning home to help shape the future of farming in their communities. As Ishmael Sunga, SACAU\u2019s CEO, puts it, \u201cDon\u2019t sell agriculture to the young, sell opportunities.\u201d I don\u2019t believe we can be fully transparent about those opportunities if we aren\u2019t accounting for water and how water availability will shape the future of agriculture for Africa\u2019s youth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thobo Marcelino is a young farmer with an analytical eye. A food scientist by training, the 21-year-old is keen to understand and optimize each of the systems that feed her nascent organic horticultural business in Botswana. Water has her attention. \u201cWe\u2019re wasting a lot of water,\u201d Marcelino admits. \u201cNot because we just want to. Because …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":153170,"featured_media":1636,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[81],"tags":[147,58,146],"coauthors":[103],"class_list":["post-1631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-global","tag-africa","tag-farmers","tag-water"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t