Climate change threat to crop yield and world health

THE recent study by the medical journal The Lancet into the threat posed by climate change has introduced an important new voice into the discourse on the effects that global warming will have in the decades ahead.

The Lancet warned climate change could be the biggest global health threat of this century, citing water and food insecurity, changing patterns of disease, together with extreme climatic events and population migration among the biggest risks that will be posed to humankind. Food insecure areas of sub-Saharan Africa are particularly vulnerable to the effects of changing global climates. In many of the semi-arid regions where Self Help Africa works agriculture and agro-ecological systems are vulnerable to climate change because rainfall patterns are unpredictable and the climate is already too hot.

Elsewhere on the continent tropical regions have witnessed extreme rainfall and flooding, with devastating effects.

The Lancet is correct to identify food production as one of the major challenges that will result from climate change. Upwards of 80% of people in Sub-Saharan Africa rely on farming for their survival, and agriculture is an important element of many national economies.

The sector is already under considerable stress as farmers have limited access to capital and technology, and research and extension services do not have the resources to support adequate adaptation. The main effect of climate change on semi-arid or tropical agro-ecological systems is a significant reduction in crop yields which could force large regions of marginal agriculture out of production in Africa.

Such a decline in crop yields will also place more pressure and higher demand for more conversion of lands, extraction of water supply sources for irrigation, and more intensive use of chemical inputs, causing serious environmental damage, soil erosion, as well as seriously accelerating biodiversity loss. The promotion of sustainable farming systems must therefore be at the heart of our efforts to support small-scale farming and food production in Africa in the coming years.

vital that appropriate and sustainable practices, and measures that can support rural communities to meet the additional challenges of a changing climate, are central to these efforts.

Ray Jordan

Chief Executive

Self Help Africa

Annefield House

Portlaoise

Co Laois