Posts

In Conclusion...

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Throughout this blog, I have been able to research countless aspects of the African agricultural system and how it ties to food. There have been many main takeaways from this blog which I was able to thoroughly understand through the use of the case study posts. The overarching themes I have seen when researching water and food in Africa is that 1) smallholder farms have a better chance of making the future of food in Africa more sustainable 2) most places rely on rainfall for irrigation thus there needs to be better water management techniques to distribute and have access to water supplies 3) there is a need to have better institutions and mechanisms in place to allow Africa to modernize and expand in growth with the use of its agricultural sector. Going through the research it is evident that the food crisis in Africa has been on the minds of developed and developing countries governments for a while. Africa hasn’t been through the Green Revolution, which we spoke about in lecture
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Reaching into the middle of the continent

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As one of my final blog posts, I wanted to make sure I had adequately researched the whole of the continent of Africa. Therefore, I will be doing a third case study on agriculture and water uses in Uganda. Uganda is a central eastern land-locked country in Africa, which has most of its population engaged in rural agricultural activities (Chidlow, 2014) . Uganda shares a portion of Lake Victoria with Tanzania and Kenya which brings up the idea of transnational water boundaries which we have studied in class. Therefore, knowing Uganda has access to one of the largest lakes in the world, I would’ve thought Uganda could rely on this resource for irrigation. However, like many of the countries in Africa water distribution is extremely unequal and farmers simply depend on rainfall (Chidlow, 2014) . The good news here is that rainfall in Uganda is high, averaging about 1,000 to 1,500 mm in the southern regions of the country (Worldtravelguide) . Just like the majority of countries in Africa,
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A closer look at irrigation

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“There is no reason why Africa cannot be self‐sufficient when it comes to food. It has sufficient arable land. What's lacking is the right seeds, the right irrigation, but also the kinds of institutional mechanisms that ensure that a farmer is going to be able to grow crops, get them to market, get a fair price” -Barack Obama (Lankford, 2009)  A small scale farmer in Africa using the rope and bucket method discussed below (Researchgate) I am starting this week's blog with this quote as it shows what I will be examining and also restates how important the need for investment in Africa’s irrigation is to ensure a bright future. The quote from Obama above shows what I have been thinking a lot about, why is it that the developed countries of the world had it easy when it came to growing crops and sustaining our populations and Africa hasn’t. Well, there is obviously a lot to unpack there with the colonial past which I have touched upon but also the lack of investments and
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A northern perspective: Case Study on Mali

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When looking at a map of Northern Africa, the countries vary in size, geographical extent, and climate. Looking back at last week's blog, I wanted to choose a country for this week's case study that I know little about yet still intrigues me. This is why I chose Mali, it has the Niger River running through it, a transboundary river, which means that in a political sense conflicts could erupt, and in a geographical sense, Mali has a source of water. I am interested in learning more about the connection between water and food in Mali as it is a central northern African country that has had lots of issues in the past. According to WaterAid, Mali is one of the “hottest places on earth” as its lands extend into the Sahara Desert, being a large country (Ouedraogo) . This fact has me questioning if this means that with increased climate change Mali will be heating even more and experiencing things such as increased erosion and desertification? A map of Mali (Free World Maps) Ma
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The North South Division

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After having a group discussion in the lecture this week, I realize I’ve been focusing the attention of my blog on mostly Sub Saharan African countries and their connections to food and water. As I’ve just done a case study on a southeastern country in Africa, Mozambique, I will focus this week's attention on farming, agriculture, and water use in Northern Africa. I will follow this blog post with a case study on a Northern African country in order to balance my thoughts and deliver a more well-rounded image of food and water in Africa. Map showing the region of Northern Africa (Ethnologue) The first thing that caught my mind when reading about agriculture in Northern Africa, is that every paper mentioned semi-urban practices. One in particular mentioned feedlots (FAO) , “Livestock, mainly sheep and goats, are an important feature of many farming systems...from extensive pastoralism to feedlots in peri-urban agriculture,” this immediately shows a stark difference between Nor
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Focusing on Mozambique

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When thinking of water and food there is this central idea that this means water as a complement to growing food. What if we were to think about water providing the food in a sense? This is what led me to think about focusing this weeks blog on a case study of Mozambique. Situated on the southeastern coast of Africa right across from Madagascar, Mozambique has 2.800 km (FAO) of coastline. Thus, fisheries are important to Mozambique as well as agriculture. I first began thinking of Mozambique as a case study as my sister lives there, and secondly because I always want to learn more about this diverse country. Map of Mozambique (CIA World Factbook) As an introduction, Mozambique was a Portuguese colony until 1975 and suffered a 16-year civil war which ended in 1992 (FAO) that devastated the country, its economy and created divisions among its citizens. Mozambique with its location and climate is considered a tropical to subtropical country (CIA World Factbook) and relies most
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Africa's water laws hindering the present

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I had mentioned in my first blog the colonization of water in Africa in the 1900s. In this blog, I will be investigating what had happened with water in this time and how its repercussions are felt today. Colonization in Africa had many aspects to it, many people often focus on land. Land in Africa was taken from individuals' hands and then used as a profit mechanism for settlers. For example, today in South Africa there are land reforms happening to return the land to black South Africans (FinancialTimes) . However, evidently it was not the only land that was abused by colonizers but water too, freshwater to be exact. In fact, the practices that were used on the water in colonial times is hurting Africa's advancements (FinancialTimes) . Settlers home in Njoro, 1909 (oldafricamagazine)    As mentioned in my first blog, Africa was reliant on water permits. These permits were a system of owning water under the rules of the settlers. However, today these systems of permi
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