How can we change with climate?

Following the challenges triggered by climate change that were discussed last week and addressed at the Conference of the Parties that just concluded, this post aims to assess the potential fields for improvement that will facilitate adaptation to water and food stressors. Africa indeed hosts significant adaptation capacity, but it requires an impulse in its development. The post will be particularly dedicated to two adaptation themes, water storage and crop adaptations.

The International Water Management Institute (2009) recognises that policies aiming to improve citizen access to water would be most effective if they invested in storage facilities or community-managed irrigation systems intended to overcome droughts among other communal strategies. However, despite the potential success of such policies, scepticism derives from their capacity to generate conflict and divert investments for maladaptation strategies (Vermeulen et al., 2012). This raises great concern, as it is a problem observed even in countries with abundant water, simply associated to management failures. By assessing the entire water cycle, from groundwater and soil moisture to large reservoirs, accurate management may be achieved. Consequently, effective provision of water storage would encourage poverty alleviation, as seen in Ethiopia, for instance. The country largely depends on rainfed agriculture and lacks sufficient storage infrastructure. This conditions its capacity to cope with droughts and floods and limits national economic growth. 

Out of 45,000 dams present around the world, only 40% are destined to irrigation and those remain controversial due to the practices they involve, including land flooding, changing biodiversity inside and around the dam and modifying natural ecological processes (IWMI, 2009). Unsuccessful examples of dams are the Avis and the Goreangab, built in the proximities of Windhoek in the mid-20th Century. Both are so small that their assured yield became negligible, and they could barely provide for the growing dimensions of the city (Pisani, 2015). Subsequently, the dams became redundant and currently the Avis is solely used for recreational purposes while the Goreangab lies dramatically polluted due to overflows from the Gammams Waste Water Treatment Works and sewerage from tributary rivers (Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry, 2014). In contrast, Ghana and Burkina Faso have accomplished good models of dams, where many small community ones have been developed for domestic water supplies, household gardens, rainfed crop and livestock (IWMI, 2009).

Small dam in Pouni-Nord, Burkina Faso (Savadogo, 2006)

Crop adaptation to changing climates is potentially achievable through multiple methods. Jayne and Sanchez (2021) suggest that current rates of agricultural production could be increased through enhanced effectivity in the use of improved seeds or mineral fertilisers and organic inputs. Losing productivity of certain high-value crops such as coffee, tea or cocoa will reduce the export earnings, which may overflow to produce a range of important negative consequences. In the sight of shrinking suitable agroclimatic zones for important African crops, including different cereals, a spark of hope lies with maize crops. Its production is currently located in low elevations of Eastern Africa, but it would survive with a shift to higher elevations (Niang et al. 2014). There is a growing requirement to study the crops resistant to a progressively changing climate, in terms of heat, drought, waterlogging and pests (Vermeulen et al., 2012). Furthermore, to adjust to the increasing costs associated with agricultural production, the proportion of livestock production is increasing relative to that of crops. This trend is currently observed in a transition zone in the West African Sahel and coastal and mid-altitude regions in Eastern and South-Eastern Africa (Niang et al. 2014) Additionally, heat tolerant livestock will possibly become more important, for instance by favouring cattle over dairy cows, or even sheep and goats over the current dependence on poultry. Still, adaptations require communication with the public to consider practical approaches. In fact, the most appropriate and sustainable adaptations could be found by consulting farmers on their capacity to absorb new technologies as well as consumers on their willingness to accept new crop varieties. 

After Niang et al. (2014), projected changes in the suitability of future climatic distribution for African crops 

Technologies used in the present to address issues with agriculture and water resources may not be suitable to meet the demands projected under intensified climate change. Indeed, it has been recommended that current practices should change in order to provide for the growing population under the changing climate (Jayne and Sanchez, 2021). Climate change will undoubtedly influence current production patterns and the variability associated with it will challenge sustainable adaptations. Nevertheless, there is still great potential to explore new developments in a world of rapidly evolving technologies.