Concluding Thoughts

In this blog space, I set out to explore the fascinating relationship between food and water in Africa. As now coming to an end, I hope my blogs can create a measurable impact on you guys. The case studies that I explore in this blog such as Egypt, South Africa, Tanzania, and Somaliland have demonstrated how water access and subsequently, food production is of a distribution problem but not quantity. For Africa, its physical variabilities in climate and seasonality altered rainfall patterns across the continent and therefore food production patterns onwards. The extreme climatic conditions make me wonder and inspired me with the rest of my blog to focus on finding solution for water and food security. From groundwater extraction to genetically modified crops to desalination projects, I seek the potential of various solutions for water and food security across Africa. These projects have worked to an extent for their users, but to see the whole picture, these expensive engineering and technology solutions will be very hard to implement for many African nations characterized with significant poverty levels. Moreover, many of these solutions raise cross-boundary concerns, such as the construction of dams. For Africa to become more self-sustained and less vulnerable to climatic changes induced water and food shortages, there is no simple solution in solving the continent’s difficulties. Instead, a holistic approach incorporating multiple solutions is needed to address the complexities of social, economic, and physical aspects lies within African nations.

Being an individual with limited knowledge of Africa, my perception of the continent may have been inaccurate, and my posts might only cover the very scratch of the reality. Throughout my blogs, I have always tried to put myself into an African insider’s shoes, to be as critical and as accurate as possible. If I was to start this blog from the beginning once again, I would like to gather information from different sources of data, such as local reports, social media and even speaking to one of the locals to receive a more insightful and rich insights into this topic of water and food in Africa. Looking from a bottom-up perspective, I could shape a better jigsaw puzzle from an insider point of view. Despite my best effort, inevitably my blogpost has included my personal interpretations on Africa based on academic literatures than personal experience. Nevertheless, I am also confident that having used more than 20 peer reviewed sources, my blog is filled with informative and multi-perspective information.

On the journey of finishing up this blog, I have really enjoyed writing and I hope you guys enjoyed reading about it too! For the many challenges Africa face in water and food, I am confident that Africa will effectively adapt and mitigate against all these difficulties. It is in my greatest hope that, with economic growth and newer technologies introduced in the continent, Africa will be strong and confident within the next 20 years.