Overall, climate change could add another half a billion people to those facing chronic hunger around the world by 2050.
Every rural community surveyed across Africa, Asia and the Americas said that erratic and extreme weather was crippling their ability to feed themselves.
Tanzania and Rwanda have been singled out as among the five countries that are most prepared to tackle the food crisis facing Africa.
ActionAid, in a new report, states that the two countries have put in place policies to stem the triple crisis of climate change, depleted natural resources and skyrocketing food prices.
The report says that even though Tanzania and Rwanda are ready to face the crisis, they are among the 10 countries ranked most vulnerable. This stems from the fact that most of their farming is rain-fed.
The other eight are the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, South Africa, Haiti, Bangladesh, Zambia, India and Sierra Leone, which account for nearly a quarter of the world’s population.
Rwanda has set an ambitious 25-year-plan to reverse land and forest degradation in its quest to enhance food security.
“The world is coming to the end of an era of cheap food; large scale agriculture has depleted the natural resources that sustained it,” said ActionAid’s international chief executive Joanna Kerr.
“Food prices driven by rich nations’ insatiable demand for biofuel and food commodities, will continue to rise, unless urgent action is taken.”
Tanzania’s Deputy Minister for Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives Christopher Chiza said that the government is capable of ensuring that all Tanzanians are free from hunger.
He said Tanzania had a surplus of 1.1 million tonnes of maize.
Mr Chiza said the government had secured a financing commitment from the World Bank to the tune of Tsh92.8 billion ($5.75 million) for agriculture development activities.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the agricultural sector recorded a growth rate of 3.5 per cent in the second quarter of 2011 compared with 2.9 per cent in the same quarter last year.
In order to show that the country was now food secure Tanzania’s President Jakaya Kikwete lifted the ban on exportation of food. Tanzania undertook a vulnerability assessment on the food situation.
The government had earlier in the year announced that the ban on maize exports would only be lifted when it was satisfied that there was enough food for its citizens.
ActionAid’s report, based on new research carried out in 28 poor countries and titled Who’s best prepared for a climate and hunger crisis? says poor nations were the least prepared for the triple crisis and some were perilously close to the brink.
Sustaining populations
The report stated that sustaining expanding populations would depend entirely on how the world tackles the interlocking crisis of climate change, dwindling resources and rocketing food prices.
Ms Kerr said that this year’s famine in East Africa was a harrowing example of how overexploited ecosystems, erratic weather and soaring food prices when left unchecked have catastrophic consequences for poor people.
Kenya needs over 11.7 million bags of maize to feed millions in 27 districts in arid and semi-arid areas.
“We urge world leaders meeting at the G20 next month to scale up investment in women, small scale farms and deliver the climate cash promised to help poor people adapt to climate change,” she said.
Overall, climate change could add another half a billion people to those facing chronic hunger around the world by 2050.
Every rural community surveyed across Africa, Asia and the Americas said that erratic and extreme weather was crippling their ability to feed themselves.
