Water and Development in Africa

 In my previous post, I spoke about different farmers having different opportunities and access, hence resulting in inequality. However, one issue that trumps all others and is becoming an increasing problem in our world today is one of sustainability. We are in a situation where all aspects of our life need to focus on sustainability and hence, I thought it would be an appropriate ending to the blog.  Farming practices in Africa play a major role in the sustainability of the whole continent's food systems. However, traditional farming methods are sometimes not sustainable in the long term, as they rely on inefficient techniques that can lead to major issues like soil degradation, depletion of natural resources, and reduced crop yields  (Serebrennikov et al., 2020) . To address this issue, it is important to evaluate the current state of African farming practices and identify opportunities for improvement.  A major challenge that sustainable farming in Africa face is...

In the previous post, on the Sahel region, I kept reading and noticing the fact that there are significant levels of inequality between farmers. This blog post looks at the factors that are contributing to this inequality alongside some potential solutions.  Agriculture naturally is a critical sector within the economy for many African countries, due to the fact it employs a considerable amount of the population as well as contributing to a high amount of GDP (The World Bank, 2022) . Although this is the case, there is still a wide amount of inequality among farmers within Africa, with some farmers facing a more significant challenge than others hence hindering their ability to succeed.  One of the main factors that contributes to inequality among farmers in Africa is the varying access to land (Moyo, 2015) . In many countries, there are a small number of 'elites' who ultimately earn a disproportionate amount go land, while the majority of farmers involved have limited access ...

In this next blog post, I am going to talk about the importance of the Sahelian Paradox.  The Sahel is a region in Africa that spans from Mauritius and Senegal in the West to Sudan and Eritea in the East.                                           Figure 1 - Map Illustrating the Sahel Region (Source) One of the key issues facing the Sahel today is the so - called, Sahelian Paradox. This refers to the observed pattern of food security and malnutrition that is always increasing in the Sahel region of Africa despite the increased agricultural productivity (Hendrik, 2012) . This paradox has major implications for food security and economic development, gaining attention from researchers and policy makers (Mahe, 2022) .  A crucial factor in contributing to the Sahelian Paradox is the high degree of inequality in the manner of dist...