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Concluding Thoughts

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I hope over these 8 blog entries I have brought attention to the various problems which Africa faces regarding food security, and the potential solutions available. I believe a mixture of GM crops, virtual water and increasing irrigation potential is the way forward for Africa coupled with introducing stricter legislation and fines for illegal fishing. There is an abundance of arable land available in Africa, but the lack of sophisticated irrigation available reduces agricultural potential, and therefore crop yields. Investment in research and development is key for Africa to unlock their agricultural potential, as with research and development come new, innovative ideas such as hybrid crop varieties, new irrigation schemes and more advanced water harvesting solutions. While the richer African countries may be able to rely on food imports or ‘virtual water’ crops, poorer African countries who rely on importing crops for food are subject to volatile price fluctuatio...
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Alternatives to overcoming food insecurity?

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As previously discussed, unless Africa rapidly increases their food production they face a future of drastic food insecurity, malnutrition and a reliance on food imports to feed their population. Their population is growing, estimated to reach 2.4 billion by 2050 , and agricultural productivity growth lags behind the rest of the world. So, what could be a potential solution to help reduce food insecurity? GM Crops Genetically modified crops (GM) are crops which are modified using engineering methods to introduce a new trait to the plant which wouldn’t naturally occur in that species. Examples include golden rice (fortified with vitamin A), soybean (modified to have a higher level of oleic acid) and sugar beets (modified to be herbicide resistant). Current Situation of GM crops in Africa and attitudes Currently only 4 African countries have approved commercial cultivation of GM crops; South Africa Burkina Faso, Egypt and South Sudan, even though at the 2012 African Ag...
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Land Grab in Africa - always bad?

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As global food prices rocketed in 2007 - 08 media stories started to emerge about large land grabs taking place in Africa. Notably large Chinese companies or more commonly known as ‘China’ buying up hectares and hectares of land. The Economist reported that more than 1 million Chinese farmers were cultivating crops in Africa, The Atlantic stated that the Chinese had set up a US$5 billion fund to invest in African agriculture, CBS News posted an article quoting ‘It has been widely reported that China recently purchased half the farm land under cultivation in the Congo’ ( O’ Brien, 2010 ). Think tanks published stories that China had ‘pledged’ to invest $800 million in modernising Agriculture so that rice could be exported to China, that China had bough 2.8 million hectares of land in the Democratic Republic of Congo, or were farming over 100,000 ha in Zimbabwe ( von Braun and Meinzen-Dick, 2009 ; Mo Ibrahim Foundation 2011 ). However none of these stories are or were true, they ...
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