Sydney Kawadza Senior Features Writer
The world meets at CoP22 set for Morocco next month to discuss various issues related to climate change and its effects especially on food production and security.The meeting will be held under the theme “Africa, Adaption and Agriculture”, after a $100 billion commitment a year in climate finance by 2020. The funding is targeted at developing countries adapting to the impacts of climate change to help develop along low-carbon pathways.
Concern has been raised on the slow progress in meeting targets. Also of concern is that adaptation is being neglected despite the scale of the costs of climate change.
African countries recently adopted the Marrakesh Declaration, forming a coalition for the Adaptation of African Agriculture to Climate Change ahead of COP22 negotiations. The Marrakesh Declaration consolidates the countries’ commitment to placing the Adaptation of African Agriculture at the heart of COP22 negotiations.
According to a statement released after the meeting the declaration also gives the initiative a concrete action plan.
Discussions leading to the declaration involved politicians, scientists, academics, private-sector leaders, and representatives from international organisations.
The AAA coalition is determined to respond to the high expectations pinned on COP22 — which will run from November 7 to 18 in Marrakesh — so as to make it the “COP of Action” and the “COP of Africa”.
The actions and objectives outlined in the declaration include:
Endorse the principle of a larger, more effective and efficient public and private funding, as well as the principle of monitoring the funds disbursed for the Adaptation of African Agriculture, with an easier access to climate funds for African projects.
Contribute to actions and solutions through the Global Climate Action Agenda and any other related framework, highlighting African projects and good practices in such fields as soil management (including carbon storage in soils), agricultural-water control, climate-risk management, and funding small farmers, who constitute one of the most vulnerable groups, thereby facilitating access to research in agriculture;
Place agriculture at the heart of climate negotiations by emphasising a sustainable increase in productivity and agricultural earnings, while adapting and developing resilience to climate change;
Work towards building African capacities in terms of agricultural policies and programmes, and setting up and managing sustainable and climate-resilient agricultural projects.
Oxfam in Zimbabwe country director Machinda Marongwe believes more needs to be done in the fight against climate change.
“At the Paris Climate Summit in December last year, we asked governments to increase their financial commitments to support vulnerable countries to cope in situations like this. While they promised to do so, they failed to set strong enough targets,” said Marongwe.
“Climate finance to help developing countries adapt to the impacts of climate change was the ‘unfinished business,’ of Paris. The adaptation finance gap must be addressed urgently at COP22 in Morocco.”
The Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee 2016 puts at least one million people as facing food shortages each year. The figure is, however, expected to reach more than four million people as a result of the El Niño effects experienced in the 2015 /16 agricultural season.
The impact has been worsened, according to ZimVAC 2016, by climate change.
This translates to approximately 42 percent of rural households, whose livelihoods depend on predominantly rain-fed agriculture. Marongwe said more frequent and extreme weather conditions due to climate change have rendered Zimbabwe vulnerable to hunger.
The food crisis, he said, was likely to continue into 2017. There was need for measures to sustain a continuous supply of cereals into Zimbabwe.
“As the El Niño response continues, communities need support to ensure a strong harvest next year,” he said.
The food insecurity challenge is much greater among rural women, Marongwe said, as they are faced with structural gender dynamics. Challenges include limited access to and control of productive resources, especially land, which emanate from social and cultural norms. Historically, maize has been the dominant and preferred staple food in Zimbabwe.
“There are ,(however), increasingly loud calls for the growing of other traditional food crops which are resilient and equally critical for food security,” he said.
The crops include bambara nuts, cowpeas, sorghum, finger and pearl millet and a variety of leaf vegetables.
The long-term downward trend in maize production has led to most rural communities eating meals that are inadequate in quantity and offer limited dietary diversity. This, Marongwe said, has significantly contributed to malnutrition, especially among children and women.
Malnutrition rates in Zimbabwe are currently at their highest for 15 years.
The current El Nino episode, exacerbated by climate change, was one of the strongest on record. It has caused severe drought, and failed harvests – leading to the present escalating hunger crisis in Zimbabwe.
Food shortages in Zimbabwe are predicted to affect more than four million people. The United Nations was, however, developing inter-agency “Standard Operating Procedures” for El Nino/La Nina events. This is a new approach to forecast weather events such as droughts and floods offering a unique opportunity to break with the “too little, too late” narrative of the past.
“These procedures set out how — if there is a significant risk of a climate-related disaster, and pre-agreed triggers and thresholds are met — affected country governments, donors and the humanitarian community should respond with early action in order to prevent humanitarian impacts.
“Given its experience of responding to climate-related crises, including this El Nino, Zimbabwe should engage with the UN in the development of this new approach and commit to implement the new procedures when relevant,” he said.
Climate change has led to extreme weather conditions, which continue to be more frequent and severe.
“This calls for urgent action to transform agriculture in Zimbabwe to be more resilient to the changing climate.
“The challenge of adapting to climate change is huge, and will require a major upscale of investment. Investment is needed for things such as: early-warning systems, expanding extension services and research and development — especially into climate-resilient crops such as small grains.”
Unpredictable rain patterns and drought are known to be increasing with climate change in a region where 70 percent of farmers are dependent on rain-fed agriculture.
“Access to improved early-warning information will help communities make informed agricultural decisions and increase production.”
Government, according to Marongwe, should recognise and support farmer seed systems such as seed banks.
These will enable farmers to maintain and preserve crop seed varieties which are vital for ensuring present and future food security, he said.
“Farmers, faced with climate variability and food insecurity, should plant a combination of plants and varieties to spread risk. Commercial seeds are often not locally available or affordable so smallholder farmers rely on farmer seed systems to access the varieties they need.”Marongwe urged the international community to beef up public climate finance for adaptation, in quantity and quality.
Adaptation is a priority and necessity for Zimbabwe and Africa more broadly.
“There is an urgent need for immediate and adequate support for the implementation of adaptation plans and actions through the provision of grant-based public resources.“Government should increase adaptation investments and agricultural resilience programming at home with mitigation co-benefits.”
He said Zimbabwe should also engage with COP22 to lobby for and champion the cause of adaptation finance.“As this crisis shows, the injustice is that smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe have done least to cause climate change, yet are most vulnerable to its impacts,” Marongwe said.
Zimbabwe lies in a semi-arid region with limited and unreliable rainfall patterns and temperature variations.The International Institute of Environment and Development says rainfall in Zimbabwe exhibits considerable spatial and temporal variability.
The rains are characterised by shifts in the onset of rains, increases in the frequency and intensity of heavy rainfall events, increases in the proportion of low rainfall years, decreases in low intensity rainfall events and increases in the frequency and intensity of mid-season dry-spells.
“Extreme weather events, namely tropical cyclones and drought have also increased in frequency and intensity,” the institute said.According to the Zimbabwe Meteorological Service, daily minimum temperatures have risen by approximately 2.6°C over the last century.
Daily maximum temperatures have risen by 2°C during the same period, the MET revealed.“Changes in climate have resulted in more arid environments for agricultural production, which has shifted Zimbabwe’s five main agro-ecological zones and/or natural regions.”
Rainfall patterns and crop production progressively deteriorate from Region I to V.“In addition, Natural Region I has reduced in size, natural region II has shifted further east and natural region III has shifted to the north.“Overall, the climate in Zimbabwe is regionally differentiated, but is generally becoming warmer with more erratic rainfall patterns,” the institution said.
Overall, warming trends and water stress caused by rainfall variability are likely to generally increase the vulnerability of communal agricultural land.
Land suitable for maize production is expected to decrease overall while land suitable for other crops, for example, sorghum and cotton, is expected to increase in some areas, but decrease in others.
Water stress is also likely to adversely impact on public health, water availability, forestry and biodiversity, rangelands, human settlements and tourism.The expected climate impacts will compromise agricultural production and food security, aggravate water stress, ecosystems will change at a rate faster than expected while human health will be highly compromised, the institute said.
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