Water & Food in Africa

Theoretically speaking, ideal policymakers could use a variety of technological , social, and economic strategies, such as those outlined in my earlier posts, to strike a balance between water shortage and food security. However, when it comes to realistic water resource conservation, small-scale irrigational farming is frequently blamed and farmers' interests are often neglected. In this post, I would like to discuss the tensions between traditional smallholder irrigation and other stakeholders in Tanzania to examine farmers' dilemmas in the face of regional water shortage. Located in Tanzania's southwest, the Great Ruaha River (GRR) is a significant watershed of the Rufiji River. GRR has a drainage area of roughly 68,000 km 2 and is critical to agriculture output and national hydropower generation ( Baur et al., 2000 ), as well as delivering water to over 6 million people ( Lankford et al., 2009 ). The majority of riparian residents work in agriculture, and there are thr

In the previous two posts, I addressed two solutions to Africa's water and food scarcity challenges: correcting unequal time distribution of water resources through storage systems and easing asymmetrical geographical distribution via virtual water trade . Both of these ideas stem from the desire to make better use of current water supplies – but what if we could address the problem by changing the crops we grow? As an outcome of modern biotechnological development, Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) have always been burdened with both expectations and opprobrium. GMOs, according to the FAO , are species 'in which one or more genes have been introduced into its genetic material from another organism using recombinant DNA technology. This approach allows for the development of crop traits (such as disease resistance, lower water and nutrient input requirements, higher yield and nutrition and so on) that may adapt to a broader range of growing environments, hence addressing f

As I suggested in my last post , building reservoirs or other forms of water storage facilities could aid in adjusting seasonal imbalances of water resource allocation. Following that, let's talk about another creative solution to the uneven spatial distribution of water. Virtual Water: The Theory Since its inception in the early 1990s, the virtual water trade has grown in popularity as a special solution to national water scarcity. The term "virtual water" relates to the water required to manufacture certain agricultural products (sometimes also further applies to water used in non-agriculture items). This proposal came up with a technique for countries to compensate for their water shortages through economic processes. Instead of producing water-intensive commodities in-house, countries could choose to import them and spare their limited water resources for domestic consumption. On the other hand, water-rich nations can also benefit from their surplus water resource by

We may conclude from the broad data discussions in previous posts that managing water and food security in Africa is complex and requires localised oversight. In this and the following post, I'll move to several potential solutions towards agriculture-related water shortages, as well as their impact and limits, using particular case studies. In most African countries, the economy and livelihood systems are strongly reliant on rainfall ( Boelee et al., 2013 ), which is inherently unevenly distributed in both time and space. Approximately 200 million people in sub-Saharan Africa are food insecure, owing to a reliance on unreliable rain-fed agriculture ( Ward et al. 2007 ). According to existing studies (e.g., Thornton et al., 2006 ), current climatic variability in Africa will be worsened by future climate change, which implies water resource managers on the continent will have to deal with increasing water resource uncertainty.  Physical water scarcity is not the most significant li

The current water challenges in Africa are significantly more complicated than merely using WATER SCARCITY to summarize, so as the future conditions under projected climate change. However, some studies claim that there is "no need" to solely focus on climate change effects. So does climate change really matter to Africa's water resources? Climate change has long been a focus of discussion and researches about Africa's water resource management. Due to its possibility to amplify the already high variability in rainfall and river flows, climate change threatens to put greater strain on the continent's water supply. Future climate conditions are expected to change the "timing, distribution and quantity" of water resources ( Goulden et al., 2010 ), making some places drier and others wetter ( Kundzewicz et al., 2007 ). It's projected that the water stress of the total African river basin area will increase by over 62.0–75.8% ( Alcamo et al., 2007 ).

In the last post , I highlight the importance of holding a more careful view of some overall thinking and statistics on African issues. In this post, I will continue this argument and discuss the complexity of water issues in Africa, by reflecting the concept of water scarcity, which is often misused when talking about water issues in Africa. Water scarcity is a concept that is often used (and misused) when talking about African water issues. Organizations aiming to solve water-related problems often use statements like " around 5 billion people could be living in areas of water scarcity by 2050 " to catch readers' attention. However, people seldom really understand this concept nor realize how it might oversimplify water issues when using it.  Then what is water scarcity?  A series of indicators are developed to measure water scarcity in the last few decades. Falkenmark (1989) devised one of the first metrics, the water stress index (WSI), and started formal quantif