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Closing Thoughts

Creating the blog was the hardest step, especially choosing the name. I decided on ‘hot water’ because my main questions surrounding this blog were: why and how is food production in trouble in Africa? We all know water plays an important role in food production but what were the many other things in-between?   To answer those questions, it began with the analysis of water resources and reviewing the stereotypes and imagery of Africa – a continent that was physically water scarce and failing at agriculture. After debunking the former myths, the next step was analysing economic water scarcity. Irrigation at times seems like a no-brainer to increase agricultural production; the fact that so many farmers avoid adopting it alluded to other factors such as cost, accessibility, politics and bureaucracy. Moving on to my latter question: Is Africa really failing at agriculture? Fortunately, Africa is indeed home to some success stories and I wanted to understand what drove their prog
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Climate Change in Africa

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In this blog post, I will be writing about one of, if not, the most pressing concerns worldwide: climate change. While climate change is not new, the current rate of change, driven by anthropogenic causes, is alarming. This post will focus on the (future) problems of Africa and what makes it so challenging before examining certain approaches proposed. Defining climate change Climate change as a phenomenon, is not new. There have been past cycles of Ice Ages and warming in the Earth’s history (Aguado & Burt, 2013) but the current climate change in the age of the Anthropocene is startling with how quickly climates are altered (Root, et al., 2003) . Climate change can be defined as alternations to any “statistical property of the atmosphere” such as precipitation or temperature ( Aguado & Burt, 2013, p. 466) . The impacts of climate change are far reaching but variable, as some places warm faster than others and precipitation patterns will change across different localiti
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Commercial Farming in Africa

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In this blog post, I will be writing unpacking a popular term surrounding agriculture: commercial farming. Some point towards commercial farming to combat the hunger problem of Africa’s growing population while others associate it with the exploitation of workers and land grabbing by the powerful and sometimes, foreign owners. Commercial farming, however, is a term carrying many meanings and its impacts can be extremely contextualised.   A Guardian article, titled “Only modernised commercial farms will fill Africa's plate, economists warn”, was released in 2017. The premise was that, with a rapidly growing population, African agriculture needs to increase its productivity through the modernisation of its farms. Small holder farms constitute about 80% of all farms in Africa and most are too small to implement mechanisation feasibly. To remedy this, increasing farm sizes, and adopting a commercial farm model will bring about increases in yields. These benefits will trickle do
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Long Arm of the Law

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In my previous few blog posts, I have been exploring how different measures such as changing crops and traditional ecological knowledge can improve productivity. For this one, the focus will be on an impediment - water rights, using South Africa as a case study. Agriculture demands the greatest share of water resources compared to industrial and domestic uses, particularly in the form of irrigation. As covered before, physical water scarcity may not plague Africa but rather, economic water scarcity encumbers such use. Sometimes, water laws further entangle the issue of access and can be discriminatory towards certain groups, especially the poor. In Sub-Saharan Africa, the prevalent system is that of issuing permits, whereby users can apply for legal usage of water and managers can dictate the terms of usage if the application is authorised (vanKoppen & Schreiner, 2014) . In theory at the state level, such regulation safeguards against the overexploitation of water resources fr
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Looking Within for Solutions

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This week, I will be uncovering the uses of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) in the West African context and potential beneficial ramifications. I will examine how TEK has been used to create solutions that can be implemented by small scale farmers to provide increased productivity and greater food security.  Toledo (2002) and Berkes (2004) refer to Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) as “the body of knowledge, beliefs, traditions, practices, institutions, and worldviews developed and sustained by indigenous, peasant, and local communities in interaction with their biophysical environment” (Gómez-Baggethun,Corbera & Reyes-García, 2013) . With industrial farming and much greater intensification of ecological resources being consumed, TEK is being considered as an alternative for greater sustainability (Fraser, Frausin & Jarvis,2014) . This stems from TEK’s usage of locally derived and renewable resources that priorities nutrient recycling (Fraser, Frausin & J
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Amaizing Cassava?

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Previously, I covered how Kenya has become relatively successfully in the horticulture industry and what motivated farmers to increase productivity using increased irrigation. In this blog post, I will be examining a case study of Zambia and cassava planting, which is one of the staples eaten on the African continent. The background and role cassava plays in food security, and how it fits in with climate change implications will be explored. In recent years, East Africa has been experiencing a climate paradox, whereby projections in rainfall increase have been met by more frequent drought years instead (Lyon, 2014) .   This has triggered debate whether anthropogenic sources have caused this precipitation decrease (Lyon, 2014) . Whether the current drought years are an anomaly or a more permanent feature, climate change unequivocally forces many countries to adapt to changes in precipitation and temperature. This makes East African countries particularly vulnerable to this cli
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Kenya's Horticulture Lesson

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In this blog post, I will be examining a case study of Kenya and its horticulture agribusiness, which has been one of the more successful stories on the African continent. The factors which allowed horticulture to flourish and specifically, the role of irrigation in smallholder farms will be explored. The narratives of Africa with regards to agriculture, can sometimes be steeped in how the continent is not fulfilling its potential. There are, however, some countries which have subverted this account and had considerable development of their agriculture industry. An example is Kenya, an eastern and central Africa country which derives 26% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from agriculture directly and another 27% through linkages with other industries (FAO, 2019) .   Although key agricultural exports such as coffee and tea contribute significantly to Kenya’s GDP, I will focus more on horticulture produce as 1.      It has increased 5 times in real dollar value since 1975, exceedi
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