By KENNEDY SENELWA Special Correspondent
In Summary
Farmers in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Ethiopia are using strategies like crop-rotation and intercropping as well as planting more trees to combat erosion and increase water and soil quality.
A survey by Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) suggests shifts in farming practices are incremental but high levels of food insecurity prevent all the changes needed to cope with a changing climate.
Smallholder farmers across East Africa have started to embrace climate-resilient farming approaches and technologies by adopting shorter-cycle and drought resistant crop varieties.
Farmers in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Ethiopia are using strategies like crop-rotation and intercropping as well as planting more trees to combat erosion and increase water and soil quality.
A survey by Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) suggests shifts in farming practices are incremental but high levels of food insecurity prevent all the changes needed to cope with a changing climate.
Variability
The survey of over 700 households in the region found farmers and livestock keepers in East Africa have for generations survived high levels of weather variability by testing and adopting new farming practices.
“As this variability increases, rainfall patterns shift, and average temperatures rise due to climate change, they may need to change faster and more extensively,” said Patti Kristjanson, the CCAFS leader who co-led the study and works at World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) in Nairobi.
The survey found 55 per cent of households have taken up at least one shorter-cycle crop variety and 56 per cent adopted at least one drought tolerant variety to work around periods of heat and water scarcity.
Fifty per cent of households are planting trees on their farms to help stabilise eroding landscapes, increase water and soil quality, and provide yields of fruit, tea, coffee, fodder, medicinal and energy products.
