Famine as a phenomenon of food shortages and its connection to ways of providing food in the African continent

Abstract

Dr. Jacques Diouf, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, delivered a speech before the 20th Regional Conference for Africa, held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from 16-20 February 1998, in which he said:
“Food security cannot prevail in Africa unless water resources are utilized and maintained regularly. From this standpoint, you cannot eliminate famine except by securing food, and you cannot secure food except by exploiting water resources, especially river water, in the field of irrigated agriculture.”
Water resources in the continent and elsewhere, but only a little of them have been exploited, and most of the river water flows towards the seas and oceans without being utilized.
The question that arises is: When will these waters be used to eliminate famine and solve the food problem in the continent? To answer this question, famine must be considered as a fundamental problem in the continent, and the weakness or backwardness of the ability to produce food as an additional problem.