Adapting to Climate Change in African Agriculture



Context:


Climate change is one of the most important factors (and threats) to water and food security in the future, with some of its impacts already being felt across the globe. This is due to climate change increasing the inter-annual variability of rainfall, with less frequent but more intense rainfall events happening throughout the year. In addition, there is also less overall rainfall overland. As a result, climate change has serious implications to water and food provision, particularly in many African countries who ‘disproportionately face impacts of climate change’ (Williams et al, 2022), due to climatic and climatic and socio-economic factors reducing many populations’ adaptive capacity against climate change. With ‘85% of Africa’s poor’ largely depending on rural agriculture coinciding with ‘[increased] vulnerability of the agriculture sector’ (Trisos et al, 2022) due to climate change associated droughts, adaptive strategies are essential to meeting Africa’s food and water security needs sustainably into the future.


Adaptive Responses- challenges and opportunities:


Video 1- UN video on climate adaptive measures taken in Cambodia


Source: UN Environment Programme




A clear example of proactive, sustainable adaptation to climate change in the agricultural sector is in Cambodia and Madagascar, where their ‘ecosystem-based adaptation approach’ includes technological innovation through the introduction of climate-resilient rice crops, with increased resilience against increasing temperatures and water salinity, as well as greater yields and shorter cropping seasons. The initiative also includes behavioural changes through ‘improved water management practices’. Figure 1, above, shows a useful overview of the actions being taken to improve climate resilience in Cambodia, particularly in rural farming communities.


However, there are also significant challenges facing the implementation of adaptive measures, such as significant inequalities in access to water making the impacts of climate change felt disproportionately amongst poorer people, whose adaptive capacity is limited by their finances. For example, in Cotonou, Benin, households living in informal settlements have turned to using contaminated shallow groundwater sources (Houéménoua et al. 2020), due to infrastructural demands in the city not being adequately being met; therefore, those who cannot afford alternatives are being forced to choose between their health and access to water.


This case study also ties in to the issue of multi-sectoral resource management for national governments. In Cotonou, there are clear links between the adverse effects of climate change on resource availability coinciding with urban population growth and resulting resource demands across the water-food-sanitation nexus. As mentioned in my previous blog post, a multisectoral approach is needed to tackle the complex, embedded issues of food and water security among other sectors such as sanitation and urban infrastructure. In the case of Cambodia, it is clear that an integrated approach is being taken in addressing both environmental and socio-economic aspects of climate resilience, through their 
Climate-Friendly Agribusiness Value Chains Sector Project, seeking to make the livelihoods of subsistence farmers more profitable and thus secure in the face of climate change impacts.



Conclusion:

In conclusion, climate change has serious implications for meeting future water and food security needs, as increasingly limited resources must be effectively managed across different sectors to reduce their impacts, as well as adaptive capacities being increased through securing the livelihood of agricultural workers through climate-related issues like drought and flooding.


Comments

  1. Arun PatelJanuary 3, 2024 at 6:00 AM

    Really interesting blog. Here is a question however which you may want to think about- How can communities and governments work together to adapt to climate change and ensure access to clean water and food for all, especially considering the challenges faced by vulnerable populations? Thank you

    ReplyDelete

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