Water and Food in Africa

Due to the marked precipitation seasonality in many regions in Sub-saharan Africa, widespread failure of the previous rain season would lead to the occurrence of drought which threatens food security. For instance,  Southern Madagascar has experienced agricultural losses of up to 60% in the most populated provinces , 70% of crops in the capital city of Angola are allegedly affected by drought .  Climate-induced food security is forced towards the top of the political agenda.  In the previous blog, we explored GMMR that transfers from areas of surplus to areas of deficit. However, not all countries have ample groundwater aquifers to allow huge amounts of water to be transported. In this post, we will explore the technology of desalination that turns seawater, into clean, usable water.  What is desalination?  Source: Youtube There are two leading desalination technologies ( Shatat and Riffat, 2012 ), Reverse osmosis, where seawater is fed through a fine membrane...

The problem in Africa lies in the spatial unevenness of water resources and food supply due the complex physical, climate and human characteristics. You might have asked yourself, some areas have surplus water for domestic, industrial and agricultural use, why can’t you just transfer water from areas of surplus to areas of deficit?  ( Salem, 2007 )  This is what Libya has done by implementing the world’s largest, most expensive water conveyance project in the world, drawing fossil water from ancient aquifers beneath the Sahara and transferring it along with a network of pipes to the northern coastal belt where water demands exist ( Sternberg, 2016 ). The project is estimated to transfer more than 6 million m3 of water/day up north, and 70% of it is to be used for irrigation ( Kuwairi, 2006 ). Diagram of the GMMR project in  Libya    Source: Danmichaelo, 2011 The importance of GMMR in solving uneven water requirement  Libya is one of the driest countries in...

In this week's blog, we will explore the agriculture system in Ethiopia and look into smallholder farming and its threats and potentials. About 30 years ago, a disaster in Africa galvanised the world’s attention - the 1983-1985 famine in Ethiopia that took the lives of 1.2 million. The disaster prompted international aid operations on an unprecedented scale, including the controversial Live Aid concert ,  raising money for famine victims. In contrast to impressions of Ethiopia being a desert that requires desperate help for water and food access, in reality, the agrifood system has emerged as the backbone of the Ethiopian economy. It accounts for about 40% of its GDP ( FAO, 2018 ) and 80% of its exports ( USAIDS, 2020 ), nearly 80% of the labour force the country depends on agriculture for their livelihoods ( FAO, 2018 ). This agricultural success is accompanied by a clear link between agricultural growth and poverty reduction , but the heavy reliance on agriculture has also lef...