Water & Food: The elements of African development

In my previous blog post, I uncovered the topic of irrigation and showed the massive, unlocked potential it has in Africa. One type of irrigation that is gaining rapid recognition and being adopted in Africa, especially sub-Saharan Africa, is farmer-led irrigation. Nearly a decade of research in sub-Saharan Africa suggests that farmer-led irrigation has positive effects on income, poverty alleviation, employment and enhanced nutrition ( Giordano and De Fraiture, 2014 ). This type of irrigation places small-scale farmers at the forefront of agricultural development.  Farmer-led irrigation is known as "a process where farmers assume a driving role in improving their water use for agriculture by bringing about changes in knowledge production, technology use, investment patterns and market linkages, and the governance of land and water" ( Woodhouse et al. 2017 ). Ongoing research in Mozambique, has revealed that farmer-led irrigation is very flexible and adjustable to different s...

 In my previous blog, I mentioned and explored ways in which water scarcity can be tackled. This week’s blog is tightly linked to that as agriculture is the most water-intensive industry and the biggest industry in Africa, home to 60% of the world's arable land . I found the above quote from Obama very interesting as there is obviously not one solution to this, but without a doubt, colonial legacies and lack of investments have partly influenced Africa’s ability to achieve self-sufficiency. Irrigation strategies have been deemed by many scholars to be the solution for Africa to escape inefficient crop plantations and hunger. Irrigation is the controlled application of water for agricultural purposes through manmade systems to supply water and meet the requirements not satisfied by rainfall. However, irrigation methods are not all the same, so I believe it is important to highlight and provide an overview of the different irrigation practices that exist.   Overview of irr...

In my previous blog post, I mentioned how exposed Ethiopia is to climate change, as Ethiopia is recording consecutive seasons of below-average rainfall, making many regions susceptible to crop failures, livestock loss and food and water insecurity.  In this blog post, I aim to disclose how the Ethiopian government is approaching and tackling their domestic water crisis. Legedadi Phase II Water Project The latest approach to tackling water insecurity in Ethiopia is the Legedadi Phase II Water Project, launched in April 2019. One aspect of the project consists in drilling 20 boreholes that would give the combined output capacity of 86,000 m 3  of clean water a day to Addis Ababa . Likewise, it will integrate 15 concrete reservoirs with a water holding capacity of 2000 - 10,000 m 3  of water .  According to Nigusse Desalegn, spokesman for the Addis Ababa Water and Sewage Authority, this project will play a significant role in tackling water scarcity. Despite, Eth...