East African farmers innovative to beat climate change
- By Ejidiah Wangui
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E-mail Xinhua, September 11, 2012
Small-scale farmers in East Africa are steadily becoming more innovative in combating changes in climate which threaten the region's food security.
A new study by CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) on 700 farmers in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Ethiopia shows that smallholder farmers are embracing climate-resilient farming approaches and technologies.
The farmers, the study notes, have adopted drought-resistant crops, practiced crop-rotation and intercropping, and planted more trees on their farms.
Many of the changes in farming practices to cope with climate change were however marginal rather than transformational in nature, the five scientists from ICRAF who conducted the survey concluded.
The scientists led by Patti Kristjanson, based at World Agroforestry Center in Nairobi, attributed the slow transformation to prevailing high levels of food insecurity that force them to principally concentrate on food production.
"For generations, farmers and livestock keepers in East Africa have survived high levels of weather variability by testing and adopting new farming practices," says Kristjanson in the research journal.
"As this variability increases, rainfall patterns shift and average temperatures rise due to climate change, they may need to change faster and more extensively."
Governments and development agencies, the scientists argue, should therefore enhance efforts to facilitate farmers' access to improved crop varieties and livestock breeds.
Similarly, they should more than ever heighten sensitization campaigns on properly managing soil, land and water, keeping dynamics of different environmental characteristics in mind.
"We are seeing that agricultural diversification strategies are key to improved household well-being," says Kristjanson.
The scientists, however, found proven agricultural productivity improvement strategies were yet to be adopted on large scale. They include mulching, use of manure or compost, terracing, building ridges and other techniques that reduce water and soil organic matter losses.
A worrying revelation though was that only 10 percent of surveyed farmers were trying to store or manage agricultural water despite soaring demand for fresh water that has stretched their sources.
"It stands to reason that households struggling to feed their families throughout the year are not in a good position to invest in new practices that include higher costs and risks," said Kristjanson. "Yet not adapting is certainly contributing to food insecurity."
The survey emphasizes that farmers should be sensitized more on factors that enable and facilitate innovation, and lower the often hidden costs and barriers associated with changing agricultural practices.
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