Spatial Analysis of Agricultural Waste and By-Products to Tackle the Water-Energy Nexus in Rural Mozambique

Addressing energy and water management in rural Mozambique is essential for sustainable agricultural development. This study focuses on Nampula Province, where limited access to these resources deepens socioeconomic and environmental challenges. The research promotes sustainability by identifying, planning, and implementing innovative and socially validated solutions to enhance the water-energy nexus for agricultural growth. In this study, an integrated approach combining geographic information system (GIS) tools and participatory methods is developed to assess and address local needs. The initial phase involved analyzing the rural context through field surveys, stakeholder interviews, community workshops, and site visits to collect and validate data, using tailored questionnaires and digital platforms. In the second phase, collected data are processed using GIS, building a geodatabase with layers such as land use, crop distribution, water demand, energy needs, and locations of processing facilities. QGIS software is used to map resource potential, deficits, and spatial disparities. These analyses provide key insights to guide sustainable interventions, helping identify critical areas and opportunities for optimizing resource use. This integrated and participatory approach can efficiently ensure the development of solutions that are contextually appropriate, technically robust, and socially validated, thereby laying the groundwork for effective and sustainable resource management strategies in Nampula.