Food in Africa - A General Introduction

Welcome to my blog. Over the last four years, I have developed a keen interest in environmental issues with a particular focus on the impact of water availability in agriculture and on our food supply. Over the next few months, I will be blogging about these interests in relation to water and food issues in Africa.

Food Insecurity in Africa

Significant food insecurity exists in Africa. In 2016, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) reported that almost 30% of people in Africa were severely food insecure. In 2018, it was reported that Africa comprised 31% of the world’s undernourished people. Food insecurity in Africa has not gone unnoticed and global efforts have been put in place to address food insecurity. Under the 2014 Malabo Declaration on Accelerated Agricultural Growth and Transformation for Shared Prosperity and Improved Livelihoods, the African Union (AU) (made up of heads of state and local governments) pledged to end hunger in Africa by 2025. This was noteworthy because it is the first regional initiative of its kind. However, success requires larger political support, policy creations, and investments if it is to meet its goals of eliminating food insecurity, hunger, and malnutrition.

According to the FAO website, three Regional Initiatives currently exist which all relate to water and food practices in Africa.

Figure 1: Three Regional Initiatives in Africa relating to water and food practices (FAO)

The first Regional Initiative - Africa's Commitment to End Hunger by 2025 - aligns with the United Nations' second Sustainable Development Goal: Zero Hunger. The Zero Hunger goal seeks to "end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture”; it is one of 17 goals set by the United Nations to be completed by 2030. The Second Regional Initiative hopes to improve sustainable production, while the Third Initiative aims to increase resilience in farming communities. The Second and Third Initiatives seek to assist Africa with increasing food security through improvements in farming practices to increase food production.

Figure 2: United Nations Sustainable Development Goals


A General Note

 Before I sign off my first blog post, I want to mention some of the issues raised in Binyavanga Wainaina's article "How to Write About Africa." Wainaina argues that people who write about Africa tend to show certain biases by casting the African continent and its people into stereotypes. For example, people might frame Africa and its denizens as eternally doomed, or seek to blame Western society for all of Africa's problems, or even paint the African continent and its diverse peoples in broad convenient strokes such as “everyone is starving in Africa” stereotype. It is not my intention to fall into any of these traps. If you see me doing these things, please feel free to let me know.

Comments

  1. Richard taylorDecember 12, 2019 at 7:01 AM

    Excellent start to the blog that is clear, reflective, fluently written and well connected to international agendae under the theme of Water & Food.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Water in Africa

Image
In many African countries, water is mainly used for agriculture like livestock watering and cropland irrigation. Why is this important? Inconsistent and scarce water supply directly impacts the continent’s agriculture and food production. Addressing this core issue can increase self-sufficiency and result in lower food scarcity levels in Africa ( Taylor 2004 ). Water consistency is especially important in areas with irregular or low rainfall. If irrigation systems are implemented, these areas would not be as susceptible to the vagaries of the changing climate. This is especially important as the impacts of climate change become more drastic. During the El Niño years, poor climate conditions often result in significant declines in agricultural production in parts of Africa. This negatively impacts standard of living and economic growth ( Baudoin et al. 2017 ). Figure 1: Water availability by country in Africa and expected availability for 2025 ( UNEP ). Water availability...
Read more

One Approach to Water Scarcity: Day Zero

Image
In the face of extreme water scarcity, local governments established “Day Zero” as a day where strict water regulations and distribution would be imposed on its citizens. Day Zero would be implemented when dam levels dropped to 13.5%. In January 2018, Cape Town announced that it would be implementing Day Zero on its 4 million citizens on April 12, 2018 due to drought and lack of available water and rainfall ( City Lab ). As part of Day Zero, people would line up to collect a limited amount of water, roughly the amount of a two-minute shower daily per person. The idea of Day Zero made people extremely frantic and caused people to voluntarily cut back on their water consumption. When Cape Town residents’ water usage was cut by over half of the current usage ( Wolski 2018 ), Day Zero was cancelled.
 Figure 1: Cape Town is located on the southern most tip in South Africa ( Source ).  So what happened? How did Cape Town avoid this catastrophic day? 
Cancellation of Day Ze...
Read more

Africa's Wetlands and Floodplains

Image
We've lost a majority of the wetlands in our world, largely as a consequence of human actions. Wetlands are known as areas that are saturated with water, if not completely flooded. There is sometimes seasonal flooding and sometimes permanent flooding ( Ramsar Convention on Wetlands 2019 ). Different forms of wetlands exist, such as swamps, floodplains, and rivers ( Australian Government ). In sub-Saharan Africa, the majority of wetlands are floodplains and freshwater marshes, and it is approximated that 4.7 to 6% of sub-Saharan Africa is wetlands. Wetlands provide many ecosystem benefits to people living in Africa and can have both positive and negative impacts on agriculture and livestock ( Rebelo et al. 2010 ). Some of these ecosystem services include drinking water, fertile soils, grazing, aquaculture, and drought resilience ( Australian Government ). 
 Humans are a driving factor in global warming and also the degradation of our wetlands which provide many ecosystem benefits ...
Read more