CLIMATE CHANGE THREATENS AFRICAN AGRICULTURE
Right now, the effects of climate change are already being felt by people across Africa. Evidence shows that the change in temperature has affected the health, livelihoods, food productivity, water availability, and overall food security of the African people.
By the year 2030, the word will need to feed more than a billion people living in the cities, yet the demand for food increases, the amount of space availale for agriculture is expected to fall. Climate change and global warming considered as a major threat to food security and agriculture, however there are new farming technologies such as soiless farming also known as Aquaculture a new farming technology system of raising fish and growing plants at the same time, which is a sustainable food production which can be embraced, but in some countries like South Africa its still at an infancy stage.
Director in the Aquaculture Technical Services in South Africa, Ms Khumo Morake said, Aquaculture in South Africa is a new sector with potential for growth through several government projects such as Operation Phakisa. South Africa has been driven by marine aquaculture over the years, for this reason, aquaculture farmers in South Africa need resources to enable them to adapt to climate change. Most importantly, they need to learn practical “climate-smart” agricultural practices that will help to mitigate the effects of drought. Though it will be hard for farmers to adopt to these new techniques and practices due to insufficient rainfall.
Helping farmers grow food in a changing climate is the right thing to do. The government, agribusinesses, private institutions, and all other stakeholders have roles to play. They must all commit to providing farmers with permanent sources of water in order to break the recurring effects of drought. Combined with ensuring that farmers have access to new information on current agricultural practices, and take the impact of new technologies to the next level. Effective drought mitigation approaches need to be scaled up and the resilience of individual farmers and communities needs to be strengthened through proactive and long-term adaptation methods.
For this reason, African farmers need resources and tools to enable them to adapt to climate change. Most importantly, they need to learn practical “climate-smart” agricultural practices that will help to mitigate the effects of drought.
The annual report by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the top global collector of data on global food and farming trends, ties together poverty, hunger, and climate change to persuade governments to adopt policy changes that will protect farmers of the future. The 2016 edition of The State of Food and Agriculture urges countries to help their farmers rely less on natural resources and to find ways to use new soiless farming technologies.
“We need to make major changes in the way we produce food and manage agricultural systems,” says Rob Vos, director of agricultural economics for the Food and Agriculture Organization. “Climate change is already affecting many parts of the world, particularly in Africa and many tropical areas. If we don’t make the systems involved in agriculture more resilient, food security will be in jeopardy,” Vos concludes.