Climate Change and Coping strategies in Africa ( by Mayibongwe Mabanda)

Introduction

Climate change is one of humanity’s greatest challenges, affecting both current and future generations. Without urgent and concerted action, it will damage fragile ecosystems, impede development efforts, increase risks to public health, frustrate poverty alleviation programs, and force large-scale migration from water or food-scarce regions. The environmental, economic, and social costs of inaction will far exceed the cost of taking immediate steps to address climate change.

Climate is usually defined as the "average weather" in a place. It includes patterns of temperature, precipitation (rain or snow), humidity, wind and seasons. Climate patterns play a fundamental role in shaping natural ecosystems, and the human economies and cultures that depend on them. But the climate we’ve come to expect is not what it used to be, because the past is no longer a reliable predictor of the future. Our climate is rapidly changing with disruptive impacts, and that change is progressing faster than any seen in the last years.

Conceptualisation of terms

Climate change is approached by dealing with the three sides from which the danger comes which are global warming, increasing climate variability, meteorological and climatology extreme events. According to African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development (2006) these are the three panels of this triptych review. The second panel starts with a compelling review of the present situation of food security, referring to African examples to improve the situation. Then the influence is discussed that the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) has an increasing climate variability as a consequence of climate change. It is indicated that, to date, climate models have been developed with little knowledge of agricultural systems dynamics. On the other hand one can illustrate that agricultural policy analysis has been conducted with little knowledge of climate dynamics.

Climate change, can be referred to as global warming, according to Conway (2010), this is the rise in average surface temperatures on Earth. An overwhelming scientific consensus maintains that climate change is due primarily to the human use of fossil fuels, which releases carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the air. The gases trap heat within the atmosphere, which can have a range of effects on ecosystems, including rising sea levels, severe weather events, and droughts that render landscapes more susceptible to wildfires. The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) acknowledges climate change as one of the factors affecting rural poverty and as one of the challenges it needs to be addressed. While climate change is a global phenomenon, its negative impacts are more severely felt by poor people in developing countries who rely heavily on the natural resource base for their livelihoods. Rural poor communities rely greatly for their survival on agriculture and livestock keeping that are amongst the most climate-sensitive economic sectors.

 The primary cause of climate change is the burning of fossil fuels, such as oil and coal, which emits greenhouse gases into the atmosphere primarily carbon dioxide. Other human activities, such as agriculture and deforestation, also contribute to the proliferation of greenhouse gases that cause climate change. Pitts (1996), argues that due to climate change droughts and floods are destroying especially the crops and harvest of farmers in developing countries, leaving them in a miserable situation and threatening their livelihood. As in most of the African countries, the majority of the workforce for example in Ghana (almost 60%) is working in the agricultural sector but contributes just a little percentage to the national GDP. Most of the farmers are living in abject poverty, struggling with life and just managing to survive by scraping for a living through multiple informal economic activities. These of course mean an immense toll in the livelihoods of families, especially those in the rural areas.

Impact of climate change

 Impact of climate change on African agriculture has been a challenge. Farmers in Africa are currently the most vulnerable to climate variability. Scenario analysis also shows that maize production in Southern Africa will be positively affected by climate change under both low-input and irrigated management systems. According to Malhi & Wright (2004), droughts and floods, out-of-season rain and dry spells are affecting the welfare of millions of people. The suspected root of the problem, climate change, is a reality for the people of Africa. These and many other changes have led to unreliable farming seasons and low water supplies. Amisah (2007) et al pointed out that the governments and other stakeholders at all levels are working out various mitigation and adaptation responses with varied implications for different sections of the population. The adaptation measures, which seek to reduce the vulnerability and build the resilience of people to climate change are necessary and critical given the growing effects of climate change.

As a direct consequence of capricious behaviour of particularly rainfall in West Africa, the adaptation of its farmers has lagged behind enormously. This statement is valid for most farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. Within the climate science community there is an emerging effort to make findings more suitable for decision making, but as yet there is little consensus as to how data may be relied upon for decision making. Then a lot of attention is paid to how response farming, that is thoroughly defined, can play an important role in coping with the consequences of climate variability. Response farming is often limited envisaging rainfall events, but coping with weather and climate disasters as well as using windows of weather and climate opportunities are other forms of responding to weather and climate realities. Services such as advice on design rules on above and below ground micro-climate management or manipulation, with respect to any appreciable microclimatic improvement: shading, wind protection, mulching, other surface modification, drying, storage, frost protection belong to such “response farming” agro meteorological services. Ideally, to get optimal preparations, farmers get advisories/services through extension intermediaries.

How farmers in Africa are surviving with the phenomenon of climate change

To survive the consequences of climate change farmers in Africa have adopted measures to reduce climate change. According to Conant and Paustian (2002), in Ghana, the traditional and local authorities identified clearing of riparian vegetation as a major factor increasing soil erosion and siltation of rivers, which eventually reduces stream flow, and they are adopting measures to remedy the situation. The measures include creating awareness of the effects of deforestation around water bodies, sensitizing the communities about prevention of bush fires, promoting community-based management of forests and imposing fines on those who indiscriminately set fire to the forests, clear riparian vegetation or violate other measures to protect the environment. However, According to Cohen et al (2002) these efforts by the traditional authorities are not yielding notable results because the communities, although still rural in terms of development and infrastructure, have become more cosmopolitan or heterogeneous and no longer adhere as absolutely to traditional authority as they did in the past. The communal nature of the communities is breaking down; people now tend to be more concerned with individual than with collective well-being.

In addition, most farmers recognized the importance of having trees on their farms to shade their crops from intense sunshine. However growing trees had little appeal to them because they had had negative experiences with timber companies and illegal chainsaw loggers trampling their crops. Sustained awareness programmes are needed to inform rural farmers of their rights and to empower them to protect their farms and most importantly to plant more trees. Ghana Environmental Protection Agency (2000) argues that responses to climate change include adaptation to reduce the vulnerability of people and ecosystems to climatic changes which is all activities that help people and ecosystems reduce their vulnerability to the adverse impacts of climate change and minimize the costs of natural disasters. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for adaptation and mitigation, to reduce the magnitude of climate change impact in the long term. According to Werf, (2008), mitigation activities are designed to reduce the sources and enhance the sinks of greenhouse gases in order to limit the negative effects of climate change.

Also, in Africa farmers are adapting to this constraint by planting different or various crops. According to Brooks (2006), crops that thrive well under the current prevailing conditions are increasingly being planted in areas that previously did not support their cultivation. For example in Kenya, there is a shift from cocoa cultivation to drought-resistant crops such as cassava. Vegetable growers are also gradually moving into the river plains where their crops can get more water. These are forms of adaptation techniques but are obviously not sustainable. Cocoa crops, for example, were previously a major source of income for the upkeep of the farmers’ families, for the purchase of agricultural inputs and for expansion of their farms. The clearing of riparian vegetation and the use of agricultural chemicals close to the rivers and streams create hazards for the environment and ultimately for the people of the region.

Farmers in Africa have developed several strategies to adapt to this phenomenon. One is to re-use water, for example from washing clothes or utensils, to irrigate backyard gardens and nurseries. Households are also rationing water, trying to reduce the water use per person per day. However, the practice is abandoned as soon as the rains begin. This strategy needs to be part of a behavioral change and not applied only during periods of water shortage. Also according to, Nicholas (2009), most communities are actively reviving rainwater harvesting, a traditional way (Indigenous Knowledge Systems) of collecting and storing rainwater in big barrels placed under the roofs of houses. This practice had largely been abandoned when the communities installed wells and boreholes, but has attracted interest again as a result of their drying up. However most of the communities covered in the study reported that they are unable to harvest enough rainfall under the current climate.

There is  use of media to adopt climate change, the 'Climate Change Adaptation in Africa (CCAA) is also funding research into using the media to enhance climate change adaptation. According to Human Development Report 2007, one project, led by the African Radio Drama Association, will commence in Nigeria, where there is a need to produce and disseminate information that will help smallholder farmers adapt their farming methods. For example in Nigeria Radio broadcasts produced locally in two local Nigerian languages, with scripts available in English and French informing smallholder farmers of climate change adaptation measures and strengthen their capacity to mitigate the impact on their livelihoods.

In  Africa farmers had started crop diversification and seeding small businesses so as to survive the consequences of climate change. They are also producing income that is not linked to the rain cycles. According to Windfuhr et al (2008), In Kenya, one-thousand-dollar loans were made to groups of women who have started small businesses for example an egg hatchery, a paraffin shop and even a small lending bank. The bank's loans helped families pay for emergency health care and food purchases during the drought. Bals-Christoph et al. (2008) argues that it is a way of diversification, so people are not just relying on farm income for survival.

Furthermore, there is also an arid lands program that takes root. According to Bohnenberger and Burck, (2011) in 2006, a group of non-governmental organizations, funded by a grant from the Global Environment Facility, Norway and the Netherlands implemented the measures that would alleviate today's current climate stresses. They also recruited people who work with Kenya's World Bank-funded arid lands program, to help. Since then, farming practices there have changed dramatically. According to the UNEP, (2006), due to this programme Agricultural Extension Officers now offer seasonal and locally relevant climate predictions explained in simple terms in the regional tribal language. They are now producing a handbook to translate weather predictions into practical advice about what and when to plant. For example, if rains are not plentiful, there are seeds with a 90-day growing cycle that might survive where higher-yielding 130-day varieties would not. The project has also helped farmers set up a seed bank. A group of about 40 men will collect, process and preserve the best local seeds and loan them out again during the next planting season, slowly selecting them for the best climate-adapted varieties. Now, farmers can circumvent the expensive seed market, where they can't even tell if they are getting the seed varieties they are paying for. A total reliance on maize also is a big part of the current problems. More often now farmers are hedging their bets. Increasingly, they are diversifying their crops by planting more drought-tolerant grains, peas and beans.

In a nutshell, climate change affects all countries in the world. Extreme weather conditions like drought and floods have become more intense and more frequent, with far reaching destructive effects on the livelihoods of people, especially those in developing countries and more so those in climate sensitive economic activities like agriculture. All categories of agricultural workers are therefore affected. But however farmers in Africa had come up with several strategies to survive the consequences of climate change, these include growing of drought resistance crops, Crop diversification and seeding small businesses and water reuse just to mention a few.

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