Water and Food in Africa

Climate It is widely considered that current global greenhouse emissions will lead to an increase in temperature.  The IPCC has projected that Africa will be disproportionately affected by climate change, with a rate of temperature increase 1.5x the world mean (IPCC,2012) .  Current projections see Africa's temperature increasing by up to 4°C by 2100 (IPCC,2012) .  This will undoubtably affect rainfall in this region.  It is expected that periods of heavy rainfall will increase, while medium and low rainfall events will decrease.  This is due to the Classius Clapeyron relain, which states as temperature increases, the amount of water that can be stored in air exponentially increases   (Allan,2009) .  Thus, increasing temperatures in Africa will lead to increased periods of extreme rainfall.  This intensification of rainfall will be particularly pronounced in the tropics, due to higher levels of humidity as a result of ENSO flows   (IPCC,2012) .  Groundwater Storage My previous pos

World Bank Promotion of FLD Source: (World Bank,2019) Farmer led irrigation development (FLID) puts farmers into central positions in improving their use of water in  agriculture  through changes in ‘knowledge production, technology use, investment patterns and market linkages, and the governance of land and water’ (Woodhouse,2017,216) .  FLID borrows many principles from community management strategies, however, it can be attributed to individual and combined farming efforts.  A recent study by Nkoka (2014) looked at ‘profitable expansion potential’ for irrigation projects in Africa’, finding that smaller projects lead to higher profits than large scale projects and a greater rate of return on investments. Over 90% of Africa’s farms are small subsistence farms, and it seems  an oversight by many policy makers not to realise the potential of FLID.  Three Examples of Farmer Led Irrigation: Furrow irrigation in Mountainous areas Furrow irrigation involves taking water from a stream in a

                                     Grand Renaissance Dam. Source: (US/C,2020) Development of Riverine dispute frameworks   Yoffe (2003,9)  has found that extreme events of conflicts were more commonly found in areas with ‘ highly variable hydrologic conditions ’ . Africa ’ s erratic climates provide ideal conditions for conflict. International frameworks have been developed to assist the resolution of competing national demands for river water (The Helsinki Rules 1966 and the UN Watercourse Convention 1997) (Demin,2015) . These controls are often frustratingly abstract, and neither Ethiopia or Egypt have ratified them (Tanzi,2020) . International frameworks seek to allocate rights by determining what is ‘ reasonable and equitable and further refer to historic use of the water source (Wolf,2009) . However, ‘reasonable and equitable’ are subjective and unquantifiable measures. Furthermore these agreements have neither been developed or enforced by international courts.   Historically t

                                         The Nile. Source: (Britanica,2020) The issue of shared use of key river basins is particularly pertinent in Africa. Over 90% of the Continent ’ s surface freshwater resources are located in river basins and lakes which cross national borders (World Bank,2020) . This blogpost will explore current debates over increased upstream development of water projects in Ethiopia, which is especially strongly opposed by downstream users of the Nile in Egypt. I shall asses the importance of the Nile to both regions, then further asses each side’s respective claims regarding the dispute. Ethiopia 85% of the Nile ’ s water passes through Ethiopia (Blue Nile), yet only 1% of this water is utilised by the Ethiopian agriculture sector, even though it makes up 65% of the country ’ s total water resources (Brookings,2020) . Ethiopia is a country which has long suffered from food security. It has had a structural food deficit since 1980s. In 2000, 57% of Ethiopia

This week, I am looking at the Hadejia-Nguru Floodplain,  and at the value of maintaining floodplain use.   The Hadejia Jama ’  river basin is located in North Eastern Nigeria, and includes a floodplain formed by the Hadejia and Jama river converging to form the Yobe river, which drains into Lake Chad (Thompson,1995) .  The river basin ’ s climate is dominated by the ITCZ which drives variability of rain flow, leading to periods of flooding and drought.  This floodplain provides a variety of positive benefits for  local communities including agriculture, resources for grazing, fuelwood, forest products and fishing (Barbier,2003) .    Figure 1- Hadejia-Nguru (Muhammed,2013) Irrigation Project Potential ? There have been several large-scale irrigation projects aimed at limiting flooding and increasing irrigation upstream. The most significant of these is the Kano River Irrigation Project ( “ KRIP”), which supplies water from the Toga dam to Nigeria ’ s second-largest city, Kano.   Howev

What is Virtual Water? The term Virtual water was first coined by John Allan in the 1990s  (Hoekstra, 2003 ).    Put simply, it seeks to recognise the significant use of water in countries' resources, including that of food, and to encourage countries which have a low stockpile of water to import water intensive food products, so as to lower the strain on their country's water supply. The volume of virtual water  ‘ hidden ’  or  ‘ embodied’    in a particular product is defined as the volume of water used in the production process of that product. The volume of virtual water transfer is so great that in Middle Eastern and North African countries, it exceeds the outflow of the Nile in a year  (Allan, 2003) . The simple fact is, food needs water. Grain is an often-used example: one kilogram requires 1000kg to 2000kg of water. Between 5000-6000kg of water is needed for a kilo of cheese ( Hoekstra, 2003 ) . Thus, there is a huge amount of water hidden within our food. Allen (2003)