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Final Reflections

This post marks the end of the series of blogs exploring the complex relationship between water and food in Africa. Throughout the process of learning, researching and writing, my knowledge about Africa, its water resources and food have developed remarkably from the first week. Some of my most fascinating takeaways from researching about water and food are listed below: 1) The generalised stereotypical thought that Africa has no water is untrue. Although droughts and impacts of climate change can reduce surface water availability across the continent, Africa is underlaid with groundwater stores of water such as fossil aquifers that can significantly positively impact agricultural systems and reduce the risk of food insecurity, if utilised sustainably. 2) Africa imports a significant amount of its food from other continents and nations to conserve its water that would normally be rendered ‘virtual’ or ‘hidden’. Whilst this remains a good economic strategy, it questions the self-suffici...
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Africa's Food Crisis

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146 million people currently living in Africa face food insecurity . That is more than double the UK’s population. Take a moment to let that sink in… How and why has such a horrific statistic been created and what are its implications? Rising food prices and an over-reliance on exports: As mentioned in the third blog, nations within Africa are importing high-value crops and products such as cereal crops. Much of Africa’s wheat, vegetable oil and fertiliser are all imported from Russia and Ukraine . However, the ongoing war and tensions between the countries have not only reduced their exports but has also raised food prices significantly not only for African countries, but also other nations in the world. Yet, the reason why many people in Africa suffer compared to the rest of the world, is the over-reliance on importing these products and not maintaining self sufficiency for food security. Currently, US $35 billion a year is spent importing food , whilst arguably the same money ...
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Small Scale VS Large Scale Commercial Agriculture

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Agriculture can form a central part of the economy for many African nations. An example is Sierra Leone and how 58% of its GDP is dominated by agriculture . Agriculture across Africa also varies in scale, power and size ranging from small scale subsistence farms to large scale commercial plantations. Currently, approximately 33 million small scale farms exist across Africa, contributing to 70% of Africa’s food supply . However, the presence and existence of medium or large scale farms between 5 to 100 hectares are also increasing , but they do not exist in the magnitude that small scale farms exist. Often, these large scale farms are criticised for not contributing to food security within Africa, but instead leaving disastrous environmental and social impacts in their wake. Small scale farms have often been seen as the drivers of growth across Africa, providing food for local communities but also employing and managing a large labour force; 175 million people are directly employed by...
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Africa's Virtual Water Trade

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Virtual water refers to the water that is ‘hidden’ or embedded in products of consumption such as food or textiles. In terms of food, it is the precipitation (green water) or irrigation water (blue water) used to grow crops, the water used for harvests, the water used to clean and remove dirt from produce, and the water used to transport food to its destination. Global virtual water flows of traded agricultural and industrial products were 2,320 Gm 3 /year between 1996 and 2005. 76% of this virtual water flow was the international trade of crops or crop derived products (Hoekstra and Mekonnen, 2012) . Why is virtual water important and how does it relate to countries in Africa? Figure 1 – Virtual water (VW) imports and exports of major grains between Africa and its trading partners from 2000 to 2020. Values shown are quantified in Bm 3 (Hirwa et al., 2022) . As mentioned in the previous blogs, water scarcity is already threatening the population of Africa and climate change is causin...
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The Need To Shift To Irrigated Agriculture

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The previous post provided some context on popular narratives about Africa and touched upon the issue of water scarcity. This post will deepen our understanding of rain-fed versus irrigated agriculture across Africa and emphasise the need to intensify irrigation for food security. Rain-fed agriculture: Rain-fed agriculture constitutes nearly 90% of Africa’s food production supply (Cooper and Coe, 2011) . Not only is this reliance on precipitation necessary to feed a growing population, but also for poverty reduction as 35% of Africa’s GDP comes from the agricultural sector  (Rockström et al. , 2010) . Figure 1 – Seasonal variability in precipitation across Africa due to the ITCZ (red line). Currently, the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) controls seasonal variability in precipitation across Sub-Saharan Africa (Ziegler et al. , 2013) . Figure 1 shows that countries in South Africa such as Zambia and Botswana experience a rainy season in January during the southern he...
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Introduction To Water And Food In Africa

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Water scarcity, famine and hunger crises are dominant topics that circulate the media when talking about the continent of Africa. Figure 1 shows how dry barren land, children starving and women walking miles to access water is a popular narrative used to catch viewers’ or readers’ sympathy and attention. This is where my interests in water and food in Africa stem from. How true is this image of Africa that Western media presents it to be? What are the complexities of the relationship between water and food in Africa and how will they be impacted under a changing climate? This blog aims to understand more about the availability and access to water across countries in Africa and its complex relationship with food production. Figure 1 - A mother and child going to collect water during extreme drought in Ethiopia.  Safe, clean drinking water is a basic human right and necessity. Undoubtedly, its relationship with agriculture and food production is highly significant for human life. In...
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