04 Nov 2021

An agricultural researcher has stressed the need to domesticate climate-smart agriculture innovations and technologies to enable farmers to increase production in a less harmful way. 

Speaking on the sidelines of the ongoing climate change conference, COP26, in Scotland, Mr Douglas Machacha said climate-smart agriculture had been found to be the answer to high production with less harm to the environment. 

Apart from being an integrated approach towards managing  crop land, livestock and forests that contributed to food security challenges, it was key in adapting and building resilience to the effects of climate change, as well as reducing emissions, he said.

Pointing out that due to its semi-arid conditions with an agricultural sector heavily reliant on rainfall, Mr Machacha said Botswana remained vulnerable to the effects of climate change.

He therefore underscored the need for arable farmers to adopt different types of tillage systems as a way of adapting to climate change effects. 

“We also encourage them to go for drought tolerant crops such as cereals because they can survive better in our climate. We discourage hybrids that need a lot of water to survive,” he said.

In addition to producing fodder for supplementary feeding during the dry season, Mr Machacha said it was imperative for farmers to avoid overstocking as it contributed to land degradation and soil erosion. 

He also discouraged the rearing of exotic cattle breeds which needed a lot of feed saying farmers should instead rely on the drought-resilient Tswana variety.

Farmers were also urged to consider the Musi breed, a hybrid of seven varieties with the Tswana strain being the major genetic content at 28 per cent hence the breed’s ability to tolerate drought conditions while at the same time being competitive in the beef market.

However, Mr Machacha noted that climate-smart agriculture capacity building and skills transfer required funding, which was still a key issue at COP26.

He said initially, agriculture was compromised and only featured in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change  (UNFCCC) agenda for the first time in 2011 after its contribution to food security was acknowledged. 

Mr Machacha said thereafter, the Koronivia Joint Work on Agriculture (KJWA) was adopted in recognition of the sector’s potential in addressing climate change matters.

KJWA’s intention was to address various agricultural components related to climate change such as water, livestock, adaptation methods, socio-economic issues and food security, he said.

Although the future of KJWA was still a topic for discussion  at COP26, Mr Machacha said Botswana’s position was that agriculture should be a permanent UNFCC agenda item. Ends