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 progress. Starting with the relative success of Kenya’s horticulture, one can see how year-round irrigation is responsible for the growth of this industry but also important transport and business networks that facilitate connectivity from producers to markets. With yearlong demand and linkages to consumers in Europe, farmers participating in Kenyan horticulture have reaped financial benefits.

While Kenya has benefited from exporting on its horticulture produce, other countries such as Zambia have employed state policies to encourage a switch from maize to cassava. Cassava, a crop that is more drought tolerant than maize, has been rapidly adopted, especially after the 1980s droughts which disrupted maize farming. Zambia’s case study revealed how state policy and investment was important to encourage farmers to adopt crops which produce better yield and contribute to better food security, especially with the growing concern of climate change.

Traditional ecological knowledge was also another area worth exploring. The narrative of ‘modern’ technologies improving productivity is not wrong, but neither should we neglect how these rural farming communities have been coping with Africa’s climatic conditions. The tassa or zai is a cost-effective (though labour intensive) technique that enables West African farmers to maximise their limited resources for productivity.

Following these positives, I decided to delve into contemporary issues surrounding water and food. The first was the widely adopted water permit system in many African states. While it was designed to better regulate water usage, it has ended up reproducing the same inequalities faced by poorer farmers during the colonial era in places such as South Africa. It revealed how legal impediments can influence the decision making of farmers whether to invest in irrigation due to the risks involved if water usage cannot be secured.

The second issue explored was commercial farming, which has gained prominence as the ‘model’ for increased agricultural output by following developments in the West. While I did not explore the productivity differences or potential to resolve food security, an alternative angle of how they interacted with smallholder farmers or could improve their lives elucidated possible social impacts of these commercial farms.

The last matter discussed was that of climate change, which only serves to compound the problem caused by Africa’s population growth. Agricultural output faces increased stress to meet the new demand for food and how farmers and states adapt to climate change will be worth observing.

To answer my queries at the creation of the blog, food production in Africa does have cause for concern. Physical resources like water is just one piece of the puzzle; there are many other political, transportation or even legal roadblocks to tackle as part of the whole context. Thankfully some bright spots exist within African agriculture and such stories are definitely worth studying and emulating.