Climate change is one of the most serious threats to poor rural people, putting them at risk of hunger which in turn makes it very difficult to progress out of extreme poverty.
Malawi is an already severely poor country facing an AIDS pandemic, chronic malnutrition, declining soil fertility, shortages of land and inadequate agricultural policies.
About 6.3 million Malawians live below the poverty line, the majority in rural areas, with more than 90 percent relying on rain-fed subsistence farming to survive. With increased droughts and floods, their poverty levels have been exacerbating, leaving rural farmers trapped in a cycle of poverty and vulnerability.
“In Malawi, the smallholder farmers are depending on agriculture for their livelihoods and are struggling to cope with the effects of climate change.
“Traditional coping strategies are not sufficient either currently or in the future, and may lead to unsustainable responses in the longer term,” said Moses Chirambo, Director of Foundation of Irrigation for Sustainable Development (FISD).
Mitigating impacts of climate change by the rural people themselves could help increase the adaptive capacity and resilience of their communities to climate change through diversification of livelihoods, technology transfers and adoption, infrastructure development and capacity building.
Erosion of the traditional coping responses not only reduces resilience to the next climatic shock but also to the full range of shocks and stresses to which the poor are exposed.
“On food availability, climate change has direct impacts on crop yields, meat production and fisheries while on food accessibility, climate change has direct impacts on agricultural zones affecting incomes, jobs and micro-economy, which in turn shapes livelihoods in a number of ways.
“It has also direct effect on human health and susceptibility to diseases such as malaria and HIV/AIDS which undermine livelihoods capacity and food security,” said Chirambo.
But how are the poor rural people responding to climate change?
“With our life wholly depending on farming, I suggest that chiefs should develop laws that will regulate the cutting of trees carelessly by tobacco farmers, it should also enforce them to plant more trees,” said Fanuel Jonasi, a farmer from Kasungu, central Malawi.
Mary Banda, 68, lives in Ntchisi district of central Malawi and has gone through different growing seasons with different weather patterns.
“In the past, before the use of chemical fertilizer became common, we used to yield enough crops, we were assured of having something to eat up to the other farming season but now days we have little to take back home.
“I think we should find ways to go back to the old formula, we need to start using in-organic manure.
“There is also need of optimizing soil and water management system trough use natural fertilizers, soil and water conservation, water harvesting systems and small-medium scale irrigation,” he said.
FISD, said Chirambo, is currently implementing a programme whereby farmers access financing and infrastructure assistance that would allow them to withstand the impact of climate change.
“We are advocating for the use of traditional technologies to farmers like use of manure and conservation farming as way of minimizing relying on chemical fertilizer,” he said
A Climate Front line report says local communities need a wide range of solutions and coping strategies for adapting such as people changing livelihoods altogether, management of water and wood resources and agricultural improvements.
It says the combination of several methods is necessary in order to strengthen vulnerable communities. As many of our accounts reveal, diversification is a key factor in successful climate change adaptation
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