FAO pushes for climate smart farming to curb food insecurity
A farmer and a worker at her dairy farm in Bungoma County in western Kenya. Farming in a way that takes into account climate change will improve yields. PHOTO | FILE
What you need to know:
The Food and Agriculture Organisation has been carrying out studies on climate smart agriculture in different parts of Africa and how to bring on board as many farmers as possible to practice the method to increase food security ion the continent.
When Wilson Kibet, a farmer, first heard of climate smart agriculture, he had not envisioned tripling his production through simply adjusting to the changing climatic conditions.
Three years ago, a group of teachers and trainers visited Nandi — his home region— and interested a group of farmers in climate smart practices that guarantee an increase in output.
“I had six cows then, was milking four of them and getting about 10 litres of milk each day,” says the farmer. Mr Kibet then bought into the idea of practising smartfarming and made a decision that turned his life around.
“Realising that with the unpredictable climatic conditions in the country I could not sustain my six cows, I reduced the number to three,” Mr Kibet noted.
He also planted fodder crops like Napier grass, boma grass and Calliandra — a plant whose leaves are used as a supplement for milk production — to increase the feeds for his heifers.
“Three years later I am milking one cow and two others are in calf. The cow produces up to 15 litres of milk per day! This is more than what four of them were producing before,” Mr Kibet says.
The Food and Agriculture Organisation has been carrying out studies on climate smart agriculture in different parts of Africa and how to bring on board as many farmers as possible to practice the method to increase food security ion the continent.
The concept of climate smart agriculture addresses the interwoven challenges of food security and climate change with the objective of increasing agricultural productivity increasing resilience of agricultural and food security systems in the face of climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural practices.
The project aims to help 25 million farming households across Africa to engage in agriculture that counters adverse climate effects by 2025 as agreed by the first Africa Congress on Conservation Agriculture held in March in Lusaka, Zambia.
Last week, representatives from the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources and the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries participated in a meeting seeking to have joint recommendations on how to roll out climate smart agriculture in Kenya.
“We have about 40 reports from various stakeholders in the industry. We are going through them in a bid to come up with joint recommendations to forge the way forward for the sector,” said FAO project co-ordinator Kaisa Karttunen.
Dubbed “Kenya National Climate Change and Agriculture Workshop: Sharing Evidence and Experience for Decision Making Support on Food Security, Adaptation and Mitigation” the forum is part of the EAC’s efforts to address food insecurity in the bloc.
The EAC is working with FAO, Comesa and SADC to push for the creation of a vigorous network to promote food security in the region. The team has now resolved to form a sub-regional working group to enable millions of growers in the region to practise quality agriculture and at the same time improve farmers’ livelihoods.
Three regional economic communities — EAC, Comesa and SADC — are implementing a programme to help at least 1.2 million small-scale farmers through the application of climate smart agriculture that combines crop production with agro-forestry and livestock management.
In 2010, the regional economic communities agreed to jointly implement a climate change programme covering 26 African countries. According to Edward Gitta, who is implementing climate smart agriculture in Uganda, it is based on three main principles.
“Minimal tillage, crop rotation and crop residue retention,” he says, adding that traditional ploughing is wasteful because continuous churning of soil leads to excessive soil erosion, nutrient depletion and water logging.
“Climate smart agriculture also involves making holes in the ground that are about 35cm apart, as opposed to churning the entire land. The holes, known as planting basins, are about 4 cm long and 15-20 cm deep,” he says adding that this increases water harvesting, filtration and root growth.
This technique, according to Mr Gitta, is climate resilient and enables crops to better withstand excessive dry or rainy seasons, reduces soil erosion, and increases nutrient uptake.
The experts in the EAC region met in Nairobi to develop the terms of reference for the formation of a climate smart agriculture Eastern Africa Regional Working Group.
“The regional economic communities support the formation of regional platforms through which famers can access knowledge and information about climate smart agriculture and will work with Partner States to prioritise the scaling up of climate smart technology and facilitate the public-private partnerships,” a statement from the EAC secretariat said.
