Water and Food in Africa

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004 Virtual Water Trade – What does it mean for food security?

In the previous blogs, we have discussed how environmental and geographical factors, such as drought, has threatened Africa’s agricultural activities, as well as approaches to mitigate the effects of these unfavorable conditions. In this blog post, I would like to introduce an innovative concept that can help enhance food security without being affected by these environmental limitations – Virtual Water Trade. In fact, virtual water trade is not a new idea for the most of us. With globalisation, global trade of goods between countries have become the new phenomenon. Virtual World Trade emphasises the water embedded in the trade of goods and services (Oki & Kanae, 2004) . So what does this imply for African nations that are facing water scarcity? With trade, water-deficit nations are able to import goods, including food, from their water-rich counterparts. As the growing of crops, processing and packaging require water, countries are therefore transferring the water footprint of pr

003 The Irrigation Renaissance

Irrigation has long been proved to be beneficial to agricultural activities. By bringing water to the crops through pipes and sprinkles, farmers do not need to rely on natural rainfall alone. This is particularly useful in areas with seasonal or irregular precipitation. Irrigation increases agricultural productivity and improve crop growth and yield. It also helps lengthen the growing season by enabling cultivation in dry seasons, which a provides a more reliable food supply and hence enhancing food security (National Geographic, 2022) . This is especially important in the coming years as the threat of climate change will create more extreme weather events and erratic rainfall patterns, thus leading to more crop failures and disrupting the food systems. Irrigation is therefore seen as a silver bullet to increase resilience to the impacts of climate change (Finger et al. 2011) . Agriculture is unarguably the powerhouse for Africa’s socio-economic development as it contributes to an ave

002 Hidden and Forgotten: Is groundwater a sustainable solution?

In recent years, there have been increasing voices of the use of groundwater as a solution to Africa’s water scarcity crisis. Some argue that a better management of groundwater could change the agriculture industry and power economic development of Africa (The Guardian, 2022) . But is this all true? Are there any concerns associated with groundwater usage? Groundwater refers to water that is found underground in between fractures of soil and rock. It is a part of the natural water cycle that is recharged through infiltration. Undeniably, Africa has abundant groundwater resources, totalling 0.66 million k m³ (Xu et al. 2019) . The map below shows the 13 major groundwater aquifers in Africa. Many studies therefore urge that the continent should make better use of this hidden resources, such as extracting it for crop production. The United Nation’s World Water Development Report pointed out that only 5% of farmland in sub-Saharan African uses groundwater for agriculture, even though s

001 Introduction to Water and Food Crisis in Africa

Growing up in Hong Kong and the US, access to safe water has never been a problem in my entire life. In fact, for those of us living in more-developed countries, we can get almost unlimited water resources from the tap without any effort. Yet, we may never be able to imagine the struggle that people are going through in some water-less countries. My personal connection to the topic can be traced back to 2013, when I watched a documentary film named A World Without Water in one of my general studies classes in middle school. This documentary portrays the stories of families that suffered from privatisation and water management crisis and explores how our planet will be like without the most basic of life’s essential. Since then, I have been intrigued by development issues in the Global South, which urged me to take this module and write this blog about water and food crisis in Africa. The above picture perhaps showcases of the most common narratives of the water scarcity and food inse