Local farmers have knowledge of how Africa can feed Africa

By Friday Phiri

Zambia is among the African countries whose economy hugely depends on agriculture, with 20% of the country’s economy accounted for by the sector. Endowed with a large land resource base of 42 million hectares and abundant water resources, agriculture is a key economic component of this Southern African nation.

However, with a heavy reliance on rain-fed agriculture, climate change is already impacting negatively on smallholders’ productivity, mainly due to erratic and unpredictable rainfall.

Mr. Kebby Kabunda, a Humanitarian Program Coordinator at Oxfam Zambia, one of the delegates at the climate change forum in Marrakech, Morocco, says that no intervention for such challenges can be addressed without involvement of local communities.

“This year’s theme is timely but our issue is that we talk too much and little action. For us at Oxfam, we believe in the grassroots approach and that is the message we are taking home”, Mr. Kabunda says, pointing out that Oxfam has been preaching adaptation that works for the affected communities.

He says Zambia has a lot of potential for irrigation farming, and ways must be found to unlock such potentials for the benefit of smallholder farmers.

Mr. Robert Chimambo, a farmer and environmental activist, says that more investment is required for early warning systems to help farmers plan amid the crisis of climate change.

Mr. Chimambo, who is a Board member of the Zambia Climate Change Network (ZCCN), a coalition of Zambian civil society groups, says “the time has come for Africa to walk the talk and invest in climate early warning systems”.

With the launch of a €33million ClimDev Africa Special Fund to be run by the African Development Bank (AfDB), aimed at building regional capacities in climate information systems, Mr. Chimambo believes that the Fund will help Africa’s cause on adaptation.

“All we are saying is that the locals must always be taken on board in these projects to avoid failure”, he concludes.