Fig. 5: Historical and future trends of African water footprint.

Time-series of total water footprint (WF) and unitary water footprint (uWF) for the 12 study crops: (a, b) rice, sorghum, wheat, and sugarcane; (c, d) millet, maize, barley, and soy; (e, f) cassava, groundnut, yams, and cotton. Solid lines represent historical trends36,42, dashed and dash-dotted indicate RCP6.0 and RCP2.6, respectively. Empty dots indicate the hard-intensification pathway, stars indicate Extensification pathway. Shaded areas identify the difference in terms of water use of hard intensification and extensification.