Food and Water

Food and water are inextricably linked, without water there is no food and without food people cannot survive. Water is used in all aspects of food production for irrigating crops, processing food, cleaning food and even transporting food which is why, globally, agriculture accounts for around 70% of water usage in the world today and in some countries is even as high as 90% (OECD, 2016). Food demand is predicted to increase by 60% by 2050 which means that global food production in 2050 should be 60% higher than it is now to satisfy demand (Alexandratos and Bruinsma, 2012). Globally 800 million people suffer from chronic hunger, and of the 34 countries that account for 90% of the global burden of malnutrition, 22 are in Africa (The Lancet, n/d). Therefore central to this discussion is food security in Africa. Africa has roughly 600 million hectares of uncultivated arable land, or 60% of the world’s total, and according to estimates only 4-7% of Africa’s farmland is irrigated (in comparison it’s 37% in Asia). This means that >90% of Africa’s farmland rely on rain for their crops, which is irregular, and often insufficient, leading to frequent droughts and loss of crops. Therefore tapping into Africa’s irrigation potential is key for boosting global food production, as irrigated crop yields produce double or more output than rain-fed crops. But how can we tap into this potential?

In this blog I hope to cover a range of topics relating to water and food in African including some of the following:

1)      Virtual Water, its implications for Africa

2)      International interest in Africa’s agriculture, specifically Chinese land grab in Africa

3)      Small-scale irrigation v large-scale irrigation, benefits and impacts

4)      Water harvesting solutions

One thing I am keen to convey is that ‘Africa’ is not a heterogeneous continent. Groundwater levels, rainfall, farming methods, culture, levels of development etc. all vary between countries, regions and communities (see figures 1 and 2) and I will try to avoid referring to ‘Africa’ as just one homogeneous region as other Westerners have previously done.

Figure 1. Africa’s groundwater storage levels - 2012

Figure 2. Africa’s long-term average annual rainfall (mm) (1901 – 2005)

I’m a 3^rd year Geography undergraduate studying at UCL and come from a predominantly human Geography background so hope to be able contribute as much of my knowledge as possible. Please don’t hesitate to post comments or ask questions and I will try to get back to you in a timely manner!

References

      Alexandratos, N. and Bruinsma, J. (2012) ‘World Agriculture towards 2030/2050: the 2012 revision’ (ESA Working Paper No. 12-03). Retrieved from the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations

(WWW) http://www.fao.org/docrep/016/ap106e/ap106e.pdf

     MacDonald, A M, Bonsor, H C, Ó Dochartaigh, B E, Taylor, R G.  2012.  Quantitative maps of groundwater resources in Africa.  Environmental Research Letters 7, 024009

     OECD (2016) ‘Agriculture and Water’ OECD Meeting of Agriculture Ministers, Background note,

(WWW) http://www.oecd.org/tad/sustainable-agriculture/5_background_note.pdf

     The Lancet (n/d) ‘Maternal and Child Nutrition’ Executive Summary of The Lancet Maternal and Child Nutrition Series

(WWW) http://www.thelancet.com/pb/assets/raw/Lancet/stories/series/nutrition-eng.pdf

     University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit (CRU) [Phil Jones, Ian Harris]. CRU Time Series (TS) high resolution gridded datasets. NCAS British Atmospheric Data Centre. Available from http://catalogue.ceda.ac.uk/uuid/3f8944800cc48e1cbc29a5ee12d8542d  (Accessed on 13 October 2016)