24 Jun 2015

Botswana is projected to experience increased frequency in severity of droughts and within growing season dry spells, increased warming and declining rainfall due to climate change.

This was revealed during the Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) validation workshop, which brought together Ministries of Agriculture, Environment, Wildlife and Tourism stake holders and development partners.

Giving a presentation Mr Nnyaladzi Batisani, lead researcher from Botswana Institute for Technology Research and Innovation (BITRI) said the country already faced critical problems of the land degradation, loss of productive arable and livestock grazing land, diminishing soil productivity and natural resources base supporting poorer communities. 

He said the relative newness of climate change debate and levels among different livelihood sections and economic development sectors in the country against these critical projections calls for a new thinking in terms of mechanisms and actions.

Mr Batisani said there are increasing regional and international calls for Climate Smart Agriculture as part of the quest to transform Africa’s agricultural systems towards more productive, efficient, resilient, and sustainable systems in the face of global food systems and climate change.

“CSA is aimed at addressing growing demand for increasing agricultural productivity and socio-ecological resilience of livelihoods systems while minimizing agriculture’s contribution to the release of greenhouse gases which cause global warming,” said Batisani.

He said  Agricultural growth is therefore important for stimulation of economic growth in Botswana and total dependence on rain- fed agriculture and poor soil health increases vulnerability of farming systems and predisposes rural households to food insecurity and poverty thus eroding their productive assets weakening their coping strategies and resilience.

Mr Batisani said increasingly, the onset, duration, and intensity of these rains vary considerably from year to year, while frequency and intensity of the extreme weather events such as droughts and floods were on the increase with devastating impacts on the national and economy.

Speaking during the same workshop Deputy Director in the Department of Agricultural Research Ms Balaibi Makoba said The Ministry of Agriculture has a vision of attaining food security and global competitiveness in agricultural products. “We can attain this vision if we all come together in addressing pertinent issues such as the adverse impacts of climate change in agricultural production.” 

she said.Ms Makoba said this past ploughing season there was a serious reduction in agricultural production due to the scarcity of rain and extremely high temperatures, however there were some individual farmers in some parts of the country who have managed to harvest and are able to sustain their livestock on natural pastures. 

Dr Calvin Nhira, Programme Coordinator of Programme on Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation in Eastern and Southern Africa, (COMESA) said The African Union has committed itself to support farmers and their organisations to address the threats - to mitigate climate change and build climate resilient agricultural systems.“

So we now have the 25x25 Vision - at least 25 million farmers who would have adopted CSA and practicing it by 2025. We should all feed into this target and help to surpass it in a way that addresses our own needs in Botswana,” he said. ENDS