Hunger signals climate change�s arrival

Baboki Kayawe | Friday October 2, 2015 13:52

 

“There is an intricate relationship between rainfall, rangelands, agriculture, wildlife and climate variability and change. As climate change ushers in more stress on the water sector, it is increasingly a concern that losses in rangeland productivity will result in food insecurity, especially in rural areas,” says a country analysis report released recently on Botswana.  

Far from the airy conference rooms where such reports are typically shared, are the thousands of subsistence farmers in Botswana for whom the words on these reports come to life in the fields and the paddocks every harvest season.

For these farmers, the national ideals of poverty eradication and sustainable development are slipping ever further out of reach.

Sixty-five-year-old Bathalefhi Seoroka is a subsistence farmer in Boteti, one of Botswana’s drier areas located in the central region.  She mostly grows maize, sorghum, beans and melons on her six-hectare field. 

Since the turn of the decade, Seoroka has noticed that her crops have not been doing well due to declining rainfall. She, however, tirelessly continues to work the land. 

“Weather patterns have drastically changed. I don’t know how we will be able to survive under such dry conditions. What will my children eat? I have never lived the kind of life where everything is purchased from the supermarkets. I live off my hands,” she says.

Another farmer, Kgasane Tsele feels government has been slow in responding to the 2014-2015 drought, which was declared early in June.

“This is really scary for us as farmers and we eagerly wait to see how government will respond. The body, which coordinates all departments concerned with drought, has been silent.

“Activities started very late. By now government should have announced how it is going to help farmers in alleviating the impact of this drought. “The response team must always be on alert and respond early.”

Tsele says prevailing climate conditions are highly compromising food production and self-sufficiency, which demands quick interventions.

The southern Botswana-based farmer was speaking during the recent presentation of the 2015-2016 seasonal rainfall outlook by the Department of Meteorological Services. 

The department forecast an extremely dry season in the southeastern part of the country and said the region – which is already suffering from drought and water shortages – will experience its driest ever season in 34 years.

The outlook would have been a nail in the coffin for farmers in the south, who spent most of the harvest season plucking the remains of a heartbreaking crop. However, local subsistence farmers are made of far stronger and more hopeful material.

Maize and sorghum are the primary crop foods in Botswana, occupying about 75 percent of the total agricultural cropland, about 70 percent of this produced by communal farmers. A recent assessment of these commonly grown crops has shown a 30 percent decrease in yield as temperatures increase and rainfall declines.

This year, the Botswana Agricultural Marketing Board (BAMB), which is tasked with ensuring adequate supply of strategic grains such as maize and sorghum, ordered 1,000 tonnes of yellow maize from South Africa, with an additional 10,000 tonnes of white maize due soon. 

BAMB spokesperson, Kushata Modiakgotla says at present, the country’s strategic grain reserves had 30,000 tonnes of sorghum and 3,000 tonnes of cowpeas left, but no maize.

“BAMB has started the process of buying 5,000 tonnes of white maize from Zambia and it is exploring other avenues to import an additional 5,000 tonnes, if it becomes necessary,” she states.

Consumers are however, not in any danger as more than 90 percent of the maize consumed in Botswana is sourced by local millers from South Africa. The millers have secure supply contracts and while they do not expect any shortages, consumers will have to pay more for maize meal the deeper the drought persists.

And it is not only arable agriculture that is in trouble from climate change. The pastoralists are also struggling.

Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) CEO, Akolang Tombale says the climate situation presents challenges to beef production and exports.  “We are just emerging from a very dry season and if another drought is forecast it is a problematic state as production will be reduced,” he explains. 

Grasslands and pasture are an important resource for Batswana who derive most of their livelihood from livestock. The majority of the BMC’s throughput starts off at natural pastures, before being prepared with feedstock.

Tombale is holding out hope that there will be enough showers to replenish pastures around the country. In March, the Ministry of Agriculture advised farmers to destock as a means of cutting their losses, meaning that the BMC has been receiving higher rates of deliveries. “However, it becomes a serious problem when droughts repeat as that will have a severe impact,” Tombale explains.

“The quality of meat is also badly compromised under such situations,” he adds. According to the CEO, the BMC is presently talking to farmers trying to change their approach from quantity to quality-based cattle production. Smaller herd numbers, he says, would be more manageable, especially if the dry season prevails and feeds have to be provided for livestock.

Climate change is also expected to affect the quality of pasture, local pastoral farmers will have access to more feed in years to come.

United Nations Development Programme’s deputy resident representative, Lare Sisay, says the agriculture sector will experience changes in the composition of grass species, with increases in undesirable types as a result of water shortages.

“This has a far-reaching impact on social and economic sectors, and this has not yet been quantified and factored into the country’s economic projections. The implication is on the country’s developmental outcomes, whether they are social, economic or environmental.

“For example, Botswana is already experiencing the bulk of these impacts, and will have consequences on the country’s efforts to grow beyond middle income country status,” says Sisay.

Parliamentarians – many of whose constituents are rural and peri-urban populations involved in communal farming – are expected to urgently tackle the climate change policy, once it appears in the National Assembly.

The policy is due in the November sitting and already momentum is gathering from activists to ensure robust debate and urgent approval.