Erratic rains threaten southern Africa food output as climate changes – ‘The rain patterns are just mixed up’
By Olivia Kumwenda
24 November 2011 JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – Rainfall patterns in southern Africa are becoming erratic as climate change takes its toll, threatening long-term production of staple and cash crops in the region. Countries like South Africa, Zambia, and Malawi have enjoyed bumper harvests of their staple maize crop in recent years, ensuring food security in a region which has often known hunger. But farmers, who for centuries have known when to expect summer rains, are now finding planning difficult. “The rain patterns are just mixed up. You plant with the early rains then all of a sudden there is drought or floods. Sometimes the rains come earlier than expected,” said Felix Jumbe, president of the Farmers Union of Malawi. “Farmers are failing to plan when to plant and it is becoming a big challenge on the farming system,” he added. […] Experts have said as weather patterns change, the outlook for rain-fed agriculture was particularly bleak in southern Africa’s Limpopo river basin, which covers parts of Botswana, South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. Farmers in South Africa, the continent’s biggest maize producer, suffered a set back during the harvesting of the 2010/11 season crop after unusually wet conditions made it difficult to access farms. In Zambia, farmers lost close to one million tonnes of the 2010/11 maize harvest after rains came earlier than expected. “We are talking about a bumper harvest of 3.1 million tonnes but close to a million tonnes has gone to waste because farmers did not anticipate the rains coming early,” Calvin Kaleyi, Zambia National Farmers Union spokesman, said. Early rain is causing problems again and catching Zambia’s farmers — most of whom are peasants — off guard. “The first week of October we had very heavy rains, which destroyed the harvest kept in open areas,” Kaleyi said. “Predictability of seasons using indigenous knowledge has become problematic,” said Johnson Irungu, director of crops at Kenya’s Ministry of Agriculture. According to aid group Oxfam, which has engaged with farmers in South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Malawi, small-scale farmers are particularly vulnerable and less resilient to climate change. “They consistently report hotter conditions year round and changes in the rainy seasons, notably later onset and earlier cessation as well as rain falling in more intense bursts,” said Rashmi Mistry, Oxfam’s climate change advocacy coordinator. “These changes shorten growing seasons. Rains during the rainy season are also unpredictable.” Mistry said an Oxfam analysis suggested that climate change could see maize productivity in southern Africa fall by 35 percent in the long term. It also points to reduced yields of sweet potatoes and yams by 13 percent, cassava by 8 percent, and wheat by 22 percent across Sub-Saharan Africa by 2050. […]
