06 Dec 2023

Climate change reduces production and productivity of agricultural sectors.

This therfore calls for African countries to come up with robust Research, Development and Innovations (RDIs) outcomes that can inform effective interventions to address the matter.

Given that the prospects for agriculture and food security in Africa are not rosy, experts warn that under current climate projections, Africa will only be fulfilling 13 per cent of its food needs by 2050.

This will cause African countries to lose up to 16 per cent Gross Domestic Product as a result of malnutrition alone.

Responding to a questionnaire on Tuesday on what African countries can do, and are doing to address the climate crisis impact on Agriculture, to prevent a worst-case outcome,

National Agricultural Research and Development Institute (NARDI) Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Professor  Julius Atlhopheng said there was need for countries to also come up with policies, innovations and technologies that could help enhance productivity within the Agricultural sector.

Therefore, the 5th Edition of the Kusi Ideas Festival, which will be co-hosted by the government of Botswana, in partnership with Kenya’s Nation Media Group (NMG) from December 7 to 8 at Royal Aria Convention Centre, in Tlokweng will come handy in addressing the challenge.

Themed: “Africa’s Agenda 2063: Making the Dream Come True,” the two days festival will bring together African leaders and delegates from various fields to explore Africa’s potential in various sectors, Agriculture included, in an effort to establish Africa as a leading player in the 21st century.

Through joint efforts in research and innovation, Prof Atlhopheng said implications of climate change on crops and livestock diseases in Africa could be addressed.

Failure to do so, he cautioned,  could result in emergence of new and unfamiliar diseases as well as pests, creating bio-safety and bio-security challenges for treatments,

“This affects initiatives related to One-Health, anti-microbial resistance and One-Welfare initiatives. Therefore, robust RDIs helps with identification or surveillance, diagnosis and effective intervention mechanisms,” said Prof Atlhopheng.

He said RDIs would also help address issues of poor coordination and data in the agriculture sector, adding that global networks also helped with coordinated solutions, thereby enhancing benefits from shared knowledge and resources.

NARDI CEO said building agricultural data or statistics systems, which are user friendly and accessible could also help countries mitigate implications of climate change on crops and livestock.

Furthermore, he emphasized that there was need for countries to  enhance access to global funding mechanisms, through coordinated funding accessed from; International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Centre for Disease Control (CDC), continental funding organisations, both local and regional, as well as within ministerial resources.

Prof Atlhopheng warned the impact of climate change on agriculture in Africa, was expected to evolve in the coming years, resulting in either increased temperatures, reduced rainfall, increased drought frequency, increased risk of wildfire outbreaks and increased health risks, diseases or pathogens.

As a result, he said this could lead to more losses and damages to economic, social and environmental domains, as well as more disasters and risks affecting human welfare, as extreme events made planning unsustainable.

“During the last 30 to 60 years, extreme precipitation changes over Eastern Africa, such as droughts and heavy rainfall have been experienced more frequently. There is also a projected increase in the number of heat wave days over the 21st century,” added Prof Atlhopheng.
Due to climate change, he said small hold farmers in Africa faced diverse challenges, which had negative impact on food security and livelihoods.
Extreme weather conditions, he said, also led to more incidences of pests and diseases, including new outbreaks or uncommon ones.
Prof Althopheng said lack of water led to more competition between human consumption and water dependent sectors, adding that the shift in seasons also disrupted the timing and quality of harvests.
“Warm weather or high temperatures and rising carbon dioxide levels adversely affect food supply and quality. Wildfires can devastate farms or farming in general, due to inability to meet the sustainable development goals targets, increased food imports and related needs, hence costly for the economy,” he said.
He said wildfires also caused increased range degradation, thus affecting performance of the beef or livestock sector, including dairy. fodder and nutrition becomes costly for large herds.
To try and mitigate the impacts of climate change in agriculture, he said farmers could leverage on sustainable farming practices and technologies.

Another practice or technology that farmers could apply,  he said was the Livestock Selective Breeding and Species Diversification, which referred to specifically breeding and promotion of awareness of drought-tolerant livestock.

Prof Atlhopheng said crop diversification and new varieties could also help farmers to specifically breed and promote awareness of drought-tolerant crops.

“For example, cereal such as sorghum and millet and legumes such as cowpeas and tepary beans.” He said.

Furthermore, for more sustainable production, he said farmers could also practice conservation agriculture concept for soil moisture conservation, through efficient irrigation such as drip irrigation systems, hydroponics and aeroponics.

He also encouraged farmers to establish hubs of production for specialised production systems.

For instance, Prof Atlhopheng said green agriculture initiatives, which included green skills development and retooling of personnel could be helpful.

Going into the future, he said there was need for climate change modelling of future climate scenarios by African countries, in order to build resilience mechanisms. This included loss and damage climate based scenarios to reduce impact of climate change on developing countries and their economies. ENDS