By Allan Olingo

More by this Author

There is no better time than now for East African farmers to embrace climate-smart agriculture that will conserve the environment.

According to Africa Wildlife Foundation president Dr Kaddu Sebunya, the region is already suffering adverse effects from climate change.

“Our farmers can no longer predict the weather and this is affecting output. It is high time they rethink their agricultural practices,” Dr Sebunya said.

Dr Sebunya was signing a partnership agreement between the Africa Wildlife Foundation and the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (Agra) to promote conservation through joint collaborations and research between the two agencies.

Good stewards

“We need to understand good protectors of the land and ecosystems that we live in. These two are not mutually exclusive. We want farmers to be good stewards of their land, while also practising smart agriculture that benefits the environment,” Dr Sebunya said.

The partnership also aims to help farmers and conservationists maintain agricultural land in active production, through intensive agricultural practices that reduce development pressure and farmland extension.

It also hopes to assist farmers to forgo practices that would damage the agricultural use of the land, to the detriment of the wildlife and environment.

Agra said that farmers across the continent have in the past few years borne the brunt of climate change, with sporadic rain and harsh weather already affecting their outputs.

“Through partnership will be encouraging its partners and farmers to adopt practices to promote conservation,” Agra president Dr Agnes Kalibata said.

“Some of the varieties that we will introduce include reduction of contamination from pesticides and fertilisers, the reduction of soil sedimentation and erosion and also conservation of ground and surface water resources,” Dr Kalibata added.

In the past two years, the region has been ravaged by drought as a result of changing weather patterns, which have forced policy makers to rethink mitigating efforts.

READ: Drought and armyworm threaten Africa’s food security

A recent Food and Agriculture Organisation report cites poor farming methods, high levels of soil degradation and consequent desertification for low productivity.

The UN Agency has been championing conservation agriculture as a way of managing agro-ecosystems to achieve higher productivity and improved food security.

In adopting conservation agriculture, the region still lags behind its southern Africa neighbours, mainly South Africa and Zambia, which are now seeing more acreage under this initiative, the FAO report shows.

“The prolonged drought witnesses across various parts of sub-Saharan Africa has resulted in severe crop damage or complete crop failures. It is now important for countries to adopt technological options that help to buffer farmers against the negative impacts of climate-related constraints,” the FAO report says.