Groups push for door-to-door climate change drives in Africa

In Makindu, Eastern Province, new evidence released by the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) shows that from 1959 to 2004, scientists found that farmers in the area already endured extreme weather shocks as a result of global warming.

But in Makindu, scientists are not for the crop change but rather better farm management that they have found out enable farmers to get more food than when soil is exposed to run-off.

“By promoting the use of commonly available methods of soil fertility management and water conservation, we find that governments can help farmers to avert crop failure and famine, as well as prepare farmers to better cope with climate change impacts,” said Dr Peter Cooper, a senior scientist of ICRISAT.

Successive scientific studies predict that temperatures in Kenya will rise by two degrees centigrade in the next 25 years.

This means arable land will become drier. Amount of rainfall could drop or the moisture from rain dry faster.

Increases in temperature reduce the length of growing period, which is the number of days the soil has enough water to support crop growth to full maturity.

High temperatures also speed up crop growth leading to earlier, premature flowering and, as a result, depressed yields.

The need to create awareness on how climate change will impact Africa and in particular what measures should be taken to ensure food yield improve despite weather changes has been identified by scientists and development experts as the way forward for the continent.

Experts also say Africa should take a more proactive role in future negotiations for climate change to ensure that the outcomes favour the continent.

The need to create awareness on what people should do at the individual level to mitigate the effects of climate change is even more important today because of the failure of the world to agree on a new climate change deal at the Copenhagen talks in December 2009, experts said.

The failure to come up with a deal good for Africa at Copenhagen meant the continent, which contributes the lowest levels of carbon dioxide gases that increase global warming and trigger climate change, will continue to carry the bigger burden.

At Copenhagen, Africans were pushing for a legally-binding and therefore enforceable deal compelling developed nations – the principal polluters – to cut their emissions and finance projects like renewable energy and better agricultural practices to cushion Africans from climate change.

That opportunity passed by the next round of negotiations will be held in Mexico next year, and Africa Union is being urged to take a more proactive role.

Negusu Aklilu, the director of the Ethiopian Civil Society Network on Climate Change does not however see tangible outcome in the next negotiations.

“The possibility of an ambitious legally binding deal is very remote considering the existing stalemate and unequal level of commitment by different developed nations,” he said at climate change seminar in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia last week organised by human security think-tank Institute for Security Studies (ISS).