Introduction

Welcome to my first blog post! In this blog, I will be exploring the relationship between water and food with a specific focus on African countries. As someone with very minimal knowledge on this particular topic, I think this blog journey will allow me to deepen my understanding of the various issues associated with water and food.

Why Water and Food?

Water is an essential natural resource required to sustain life on Earth. It can be considered as a finite resource that is intrinsically linked to many sectors of society. The development of a country is dependent upon the availability and quality of water therefore, it can be said that water inhibits and sets boundaries to the extent of development that can occur in a given area.

Although 71 per cent of the Earth’s surface is covered with water, only 0.3 per cent of Earth’s water is available for human use. According to the National Groundwater Association (NGWA), approximately 321 billion gallons of surface water and 77 billion gallons of groundwater was consumed in the United States, per day. [1] The use of water by humans varies greatly from country to country. This is determined by a country’s development and climate. For example, in 2015, thermoelectric power was the largest consumer of water in the United States [2] whereas, in Mozambique, it was agriculture.

            In 1798, Malthus developed the Malthusian theory of population growth. This theory stated that the world’s population will grow exponentially whilst food production will only increase arithmetically, resulting in populations outgrowing their resources, leading to famine, disease and poor living. Figure 1 below, shows Malthus' theory on the relationship between population and resources in a graphical manner. In order to meet the world’s food demands by 2050, agricultural yields must double which will require global water-management policies and strategies to be changed, drastically. [3] This is because agriculture consumes 70 per cent of freshwater, globally with this figure increasing to 90 per cent in African countries.

Figure 1 shows the Malthusian theory of population growth. The red line represents the exponential population growth whilst the black line represents the resources available that increases linearly. The 'point of crisis' highlighted in the graph shows the point at which the population outgrows its resources. [6]

Why Africa?

50 per cent of the inhabitants in Sub-Saharan Africa lives in extreme poverty with one fifth facing grave water shortages. [3] The population of Sub-Saharan Africa is projected to rise to 2.5 billion by 2050. This disproportionate growth will equate to 25 per cent of the global population, meaning increased stress will be placed on the continents water resources. Due to Africa’s geographical positioning, the climate in the north and northeast of the continent are best for crop irrigation, resulting in only 6 countries from this region accounting for 70 per cent of all irrigated land in the continent. [4] Countries found in the Horn of Africa and in the Sahel region have no surface water available as there is no surface runoff. This means rain-fed production is not a viable option for the inhabitants of these areas. Nambia and Botswana in Sub-Saharan Africa have evapotranspiration values as high as 3700mm per year. This is 2500mm higher than the global average of 1200mm per year and has a significant impact on the soil moisture availability of the area. [5] Farmers of each nation must take into consideration the best crop to plant for their given climate and environmental conditions, risking starvation to have a chance of getting one successful harvest.

I hope this first blog post gives a basic understanding of why I think water and food is an interesting and an important topic to address.

Over the next few months, I hope to gain a deeper and more detailed understanding of the issues regarding both water and food Africa.