Water and Food in Africa: Problems or Potential?

It’s been an interesting first term to my final year, entering previously unchartered territory by writing two blogs for two of my modules. I’ve learnt more than I thought I would from writing a blog and I hope that maybe you’ve all learnt a little from reading it. The complexity of the relationship between water and food has continually surprised me. I suppose coming from a place (Cornwall) where it rains a lot, is sometimes sunny and has plenty of tractors on the road, agriculture has never been something I have been overly concerned with, other than when it causes a traffic jam. Yet by looking at the relationship between water and food in Ethiopia I have realised the difficulties inherent in water management in areas where rainfall is far from regular and budgets are tight.   I would have liked to explore transboundary water conflicts in more detail, along with the various water management strategies employed across Ethiopia, as I certainly haven’t been comprehen...

I have come to realise that whilst I may have achieved one of my aims of this blog, to highlight that Africa isn’t a singular arid continent, I have failed to offer a suitable strategy for reducing the chronic water and food problems within Ethiopia. These problems are not unique and can be seen across Africa, however the solutions required are varied. It is evident that substantial water investments in agriculture are needed to improve the current situation, but I fear that my focus on groundwater potential and surface water irrigation in Egypt may have been misguided. Whilst irrigation from surface water and groundwater both offer valid ways forward for increasing agricultural yield, as it currently stands, Ethiopia remains one of the poorest countries in Africa with a heavy reliance on food assistance. Therefore, as I discovered in my last post , Ethiopia is unlikely to have the capacity for such large scale developments and rain-fed agriculture is expected to remain the dominant...