Access, Not Amount: Africa's Uncultivated Land

According to a 2014 Deutsche Bank report, sub-Saharan Africa has 202 million hectares of uncultivated, arable land; a majority share of the global total. Of the land that is cultivated (also around 200 million hectares), only 3% is irrigated and crop yields remain below potential and the global average (1,2). 

Physical reasons for this include the underlying geology of sub-Saharan Africa, and the variability of its climate. Beneath much of southern and eastern Africa is weathered, crystalline basement rock: this is not very transmissive, so does not provide significant groundwater discharges that could be used for large-scale irrigation (3). Secondly, sub-Saharan Africa's climate is hugely variable. The Hadley cell results in hemispheric winds that flow towards the equator, accumulating moisture on route. The intersection of these moist winds forms the inter-tropical convergence zone (ITCZ), which oscillates between north and south. The movement of the ITCZ determines the seasonality of rainfall in sub-Saharan Africa, with the exception of temperate South Africa (3). Further south and north, at the tips of the ITCZ's oscillating pattern, are areas with one distinct rainy season. At lower latitudes, such as Nairobi, the annual rainfall has a bimodal distribution. The land subjected to this is also very variable, including: mountainous rain shadows; flood susceptible lava plateaux; and basins formed by down-warping between lithospheric faults. (3). Low yields have also been associated with more anthropogenic factors, such as lacking infrastructure and soil depletion (2).

So, how can sub-Saharan Africa agriculturally expand across land, and into climates, that seem so incompatible with food security? Traditional 'development' approaches, starry-eyed with the apparent success of the Green Revolution, talk of new technologies, fertilisers and resistant seeds (2). However, there is a case instead to increase productivity on existing land, that mostly farmed by small-holders (4). A mindset of bigger, faster, and more might only be compatible with a few areas of Africa, for example those that do have the geology and groundwater supplies for large-scale irrigation. Agricultural practices in sub-Saharan African are already adapted to climate variability; is there a way to strengthen the existing techniques, such as supplementary irrigation, to ensure food security. 

This brief consideration of the current state of food production in Africa has been a roundabout journey to an important conclusion. One must also consider problems of access, from the beginning to the end of the supply chain. What incentive is there for small-scale farmers to invest into the land they cultivate, if informal ownership systems mean it could be 'transferred' away from them by the government at any moment?  What is the point of producing enough to feed sub-Saharan Africa if the population at large does have the purchasing power to buy the food, or it is exported to feed other countries? 

Over the course of this blog, I hope to explore topics including:

• Potentially problematic motivations behind an 'African Green Revolution'
• Approaches to virtual water and food imports
• The potential of small-scale irrigation, and how to work with climate variability
• Urban farming
• Land regeneration

Farming, food, land and water: is the problem of access, or amount?

1: Schaffnit-Chatterjee C, 2014. Agricultural value chains in sub-Saharan Africa. Deutsche Bank Research. Accessed 10/10 at: https://www.dbresearch.com/PROD/DBR_INTERNET_EN-PROD/PROD0000000000333152/Agricultural+value+chains+in+Sub-Saharan+Africa%3A+From+a+development+challenge+to+a+business+opportunity.pdf

2: Toenniessen G, Adesina A & DeVries J, 2008. Building an Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa. Ann NY Acad Sci. 1136: 233-42.

3: Taylor RG, 2008. Water Resources and development challenges in eastern and southern Africa. In: Bowyer-Bower T & Potts D (Eds.), East and Southern Africa: Regional Development Text, RGS-IGB Developing Areas Research Group. Addison-Wesley Longman (London). Ch. 7: 198-228.

4: Douglas K, 2015. Forget uncultivated land - Africa must produce more on existing farms. How We Made It In Africa. Accessed 11/10 at: http://www.howwemadeitinafrica.com/forget-uncultivated-land-africa-must-produce-more-on-existing-farms/