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A Final Thought...






                                        Source:(CRO,2017)                                     

As I said in my first post Africa is diverse. This blog has attempted to show the potential of different approaches to irrigation, while acknowledging present and future challenges that Africa will face. This blog series has demonstrated to me the importance of location in relation to issues surrounding food and water in Africa. There is simply no quick and easy fix for improving irrigation in Africa. Future issues of climate change and increasing population/urbanisation will present more challenges that will only create increasing and more diverse needs. A final comment I'd like to make is that when I set out to write this blog series, my intention was to include academia from African institutions as much as possible. Writing this blog post has made me realise how much western academia still dominates literatures on Africa and in my blog, there are five academic articles from European/American institutions for every one from an African institution. Academic literature will only be strengthened by promotion of the African perspectives on issues surrounding food and water. As I have shown in this blog, every issue explored has its own specific local peculiarities, and there is a need to refocus academic discussion away from western institutions to encompass local knowledge!

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