DDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (PAMACC News) - Africa remains the only region in the developing world where agricultural yields are low and continue to decline.
According to the Africa Climate Policy Centre (ACPC), despite recent progress in agricultural and land management technologies, agricultural production in most parts of the continent is still at subsistence levels, with the smallholder producers who dominate the agricultural production landscape barely able to meet their own consumption needs.
Regrettably, Climate change and climate variability has added to these historic challenges that face the agricultural sector in Africa. With increased incidences of extreme weather events, including droughts and large fluctuations in precipitation patterns, and shortening of the lengths of growing periods, Africa’s largely rain-fed driven agricultural production, has been exposed to serious uncertainties.
Agricultural production is very important in assisting food security and poverty alleviation, especially in rural African households, a point that Ephraim Belemu, a law maker from Zambia, made at a round-table discussion of African Members of Parliament on the need for effective Climate Information Services to smallholder farmers, at the Sixth Conference on Climate Change and Development in Africa, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
“For us in Zambia, most smallholders rely on rain-fed Agriculture such that any shift in rainfall pattern as has been happening in recent years affects the planning and ultimate production capacity of farmers,” said Belemu, citing the 2015/16 farming season which left most farmers helpless at the hands of an El Nino induced drought.
However, it is believed that improved and well-coordinated weather information systems would lessen this production uncertainty, a point that the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization- FAO Director-General José Graziano made during this year’s World Food day:
"As usual the poorest and the hungry suffer the most and the vast majority of them are small family farmers that live in rural areas of developing countries," he said, stressing the importance of adaptation and mitigation based on "much better access to appropriate technologies, knowledge, markets, information and investments".
FAO therefore wants to see Climate change, hunger and poverty being addressed together in order to achieve the sustainable development goals, not forgetting the landmark Paris Agreement set by the international community last year.
For Africa, however, there are still some teething issues that need to be addressed especially regarding the Paris Agreement. “There is a big concern that policies are not prioritizing climate change related issues and countries,” said James Murombedzi, officer in Charge of the Africa Climate Policy Centre (ACPC).
In his summary of overarching issues discussed during the conference, Murombedzi also noted the importance of an action plan on how and what Africa wants to see regarding means of implementation, a key component of the Paris Agreement to be discussed at the COP 22 in Marrakech, Morocco.
“Agriculture is a key sector for Africa’s transformation and adaptation, as has been observed, remains a key component, but it requires sustainable means of implementation such as finance and technology transfer,” said Murombedzi, further stressing the need for African countries to revisit their nationally determined Contributions and align them with national, regional and international development aspirations.
Opportunities
There is, however, hope for Africa. According to available data, an increase of Agriculture investments by governments, accompanied with policies that promote production, and encourage adaptation to existing climate variability and long-term climate change, would help the continent’s transformative agenda.
Experts have therefore recommended that one key policy issue to support the ability of smallholding producers to adapt to the effects of climate variability and change, is the integration of climate change and climate variability information into development policies.
“Therefore, we thought it is important to first engage Parliamentarians in this process of integrating climate information services in policies,” said Murombedzi of ACPC, adding “Parliamentarians are key decision makers especially in influencing policy in their respective countries.”
But even as climate information services are being integrated in national policies, there is a call not to leave behind the affected communities most of whom leave in rural areas.
In a special message on World Food day, Pope Francis said: "From the wisdom of rural communities we can learn a style of life that can help defend us from the logic of consumerism and production at any cost, a logic that, cloaked in good justification, such as increasing population, is in reality aimed solely at the increase in profit," the pontiff said.
In echoing this reasoning, Silvia Chalikosa, a law maker from Zambia believes “there is still hope for as long as the rural populace is not left behind,” because they hold the key to the success of climate adaptation policies.
Friday Phiri
