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-sufficiency of countries to maintain food security as moments of crises disrupt trade networks and flows.

3) ‘Small is beautiful’ (Schumacher, 1973) remains a statement true when assessing the different scales of farming within Africa. Smaller farms utilise water less intensively than large scale commercial farms, and they play important roles for local food security. On the other hand, larger commercial farms pose many social and environmental consequences. Going forward, collaboration, communication and knowledge exchange learning between these two types of farms remain essential to maintain food security and local environments.

Hopefully these blogs have provided new perspectives and thoughts which have been engaging and perhaps sparked interest, to carry on some further research. 2030 approaches us in seven years, marking the necessity for African nations to meet the SDG goals quickly. From what the blogs explore, it is not going to be an easy process nor a quick one to meet these goals, but nonetheless they remain important priorities. Perhaps when 2030 does arrive, I can write one more blog post on whether the SDGs are met or not, but for now I hope you enjoyed following me on this blog post journey! 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Introduction To Water And Food In Africa

Image
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 201
Read more

The Need To Shift To Irrigated Agriculture

Image
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 hemisp
Read more

Africa's Food Crisis

Image
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
Read more