Climate Change in Africa
In this blog post, I will be writing about one of, if
not, the most pressing concerns worldwide: climate change. While climate change
is not new, the current rate of change, driven by anthropogenic causes, is
alarming. This post will focus on the (future) problems of Africa and what makes
it so challenging before examining certain approaches proposed.
Defining climate change
Climate change as a phenomenon, is not new. There have been
past cycles of Ice Ages and warming in the Earth’s history (Aguado & Burt, 2013) but the current
climate change in the age of the Anthropocene is startling with how quickly
climates are altered (Root, et al., 2003) . Climate change can
be defined as alternations to any “statistical property of the atmosphere” such
as precipitation or temperature (Aguado & Burt, 2013, p. 466) . The impacts of
climate change are far reaching but variable, as some places warm faster than
others and precipitation patterns will change across different localities (Aguado & Burt, 2013) . Additionally, more
extreme weather phenomena are likely to occur more frequently (Aguado & Burt, 2013) .
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The increases are as of 2019. Source |
What about Africa?
Within the African context, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa
(SSA), the environments and peoples are among the most at risk in the world (Were, Gelaw, & Singh, 2016) . Rainfall
variability will increase over all areas due to changes in seasonality and intensity,
but locational specifics are extremely important (Were, Gelaw, & Singh, 2016) . For example,
Christensen et al. (2007) note that based on climate models, annual precipitation
is projected to increase in East Africa while annual precipitation in Southern
Africa is projected to fall during the winter months and western edges.
With rainfed agriculture being practiced by most smallholder
farms in Africa (80% in SSA), this makes them susceptible as greater variance
in rainfall limits crop growing seasons, thus decreasing the yields of many
crops such as the widely grown wheat and maize (Adhikari, Nejadhashemi &Woznicki, 2015). Further compounding this problem is the rapid population
growth projected in the continent. The United Nations (2015) projects Africa’s
population to more than double from 1.1 billion in 2015 to 2.5 billion by 2050,
largely owing to the 2.7% population increase per annum in SSA (as cited in Were, Gelaw, & Singh, 2016). In a nutshell,
Africa has to contend with a (likely worsening) food security crisis with its
growing population and more erratic rainfall despite having one of the lowest
yield rates in the world and environmental degradation problems.
Can anything be done?
The outlook is definitely bleak for Africa but certain
measures can be taken for adaptions to climate change. Adaptation refers to
reducing the vulnerability of communities to climate change and this next
section will focus on agricultural practices as adaptations to climate change.
Due to the wide geographical variations of Africa, there is no one definitive
solution but rather a guided approach (Were, Gelaw, & Singh, 2016) .
Diversification of crops
Not all crops fare
equally under the same climatic conditions and with increased variability of precipitation
and temperature, focussing on a specialised crop increases the risk of crop
failure. While smallholder farms are thought to be very much more susceptible
to climate change, Tibeisigwa, Visser & Turpie (2015) note that in their
study in South Africa, commercial and smallholder farms are to an extent,
equally susceptible. What mattered more in their findings was the type of
farming performed – a single/specialised crop farm fared much worse than a farm
using mixed crop methods. A previous blog post of mine focussed on the benefits
of cassava as it was both resistant to future climate scenarios in 2030 and
widely consumed within SSA. Thus, diversifying the crops planted by farmers and
selecting appropriate crops that can withstand varying climatic conditions can
be important ways to protect farmers’ livelihoods and increase food security. Additionally,
developing new crops varieties that are resistant to pests and diseases are another
adaptation for farmers (Were, Gelaw, & Singh, 2016) , if made available
to them.
Irrigation
With more potential droughts, rainfed agriculture is likely
to have shorter growing periods for crops. Successfully implementing irrigation
would reduce the dependency on increasingly erratic rainfall and allow farmers
to grow crops throughout the year (Abraham, 2017). Africa has an innate high
variability of freshwater resources and groundwater might play an increased
role in irrigation. However, economic water scarcity still plagues Africa (as
covered in a previous blog post) and hampers the adoption of increased
irrigation that might help in increasing yield. Still, there is much potential given that only an estimated 5% of farmland in SSA is under irrigation.
Soil management
Fertile soils in Africa are increasingly subjected to
degradation despite the many ecological services (such as increased infiltration and water retention)
that soils provide for agricultural communities and the natural habitat (Were, Gelaw, & Singh, 2016) . Soil degradation is
a process that is “unrecoverable within the human lifespan” (Were, Gelaw, & Singh, 2016, p. 437) and thus has strong ramifications
for long term agricultural sustainability. The proper management of soils
through re-carbonisation can increase both soil and water quality, promote
better retention of water and nutrients and reduce impact of droughts on soils (Were, Gelaw, & Singh, 2016) . With continuous
soil fertility, agricultural activities can be sustained, which is critical
considering the context of future food insecurity.
Conclusion
Climate change further exacerbates Africa’s food insecurity
dilemma that is driven by its fast-increasing population. The above three
suggestions of diversification of crops, irrigation and soil management are by
no means exhaustive for adapting to climate change. However, adaptations need
to be contextualised in their localities to be effective and should be used in
tandem with both new technologies and traditional ecological knowledge. (Were, Gelaw, & Singh, 2016) . Nevertheless, these
adaptations require buy in from different stakeholders, from farmers to the
state, to bridge the gap between theory and practice.
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