The Africa Climate Summit marked a historical milestone in laying the foundation for mature, solution-focused dialogues on climate change, writes Hamond Motsi, a preparatory PhD scholar at the faculty of agrisciences at Stellenbosch University.
As global geopolitics continue to roar tensely, Africa is becoming conscious of the significance of taking matters into its own hands rather than the previous modus operandi of being a tail behind other regions on crucial global matters.
The Africa Climate Summit, which transpired on 4-6 September 2023 in Nairobi Kenya, also known as the “Nairobi Declaration”, marked a historical milestone as the first initiative to comprehensively discuss climate change at a continental level, with about USD23 billion pledged to finance climate change solutions by several partners across the world.
Despite the pessimistic view of other commentators, due to the absence of other African leaders and the appearance of external countries and regional boards, this is a crucial groundbreaking step in laying the foundation for mature dialogues on critical issues affecting the continent.
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Understanding climate change dynamics
It’s undeniable and crystal clear that climate change has become a hegemony in each country globally, with a depressing projection of worsening in the future. Climate change was primarily caused by anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions mainly from the developed regions, which were emitted throughout the 20th century during the Industrial Revolution.
Nevertheless, Africa pays the price of enduring climate change consequences, which claims about 5-20% of the gross domestic product while the continent only contributes a spoonful of 2-4% of greenhouse gas emissions.
However, understanding the dynamics of climate change can be best simplified when explained sector by sector. In agriculture, climate change’s devastating effects can be direct or indirect.
The leading direct effects experienced in Africa are drought, heat waves, and unreliable rainfalls, which lead to lower yields and livestock deaths owing to limited water availability and heat stress. In addition, floods directly destroy crops, cause nutrient and soil erosion, and destroy the agricultural infrastructure and farmers’ welfare.
The main indirect effects of climate change are the spread of pests and diseases to crops and livestock, which have become resistant to control coupled with poor management practices by farmers. For instance, the fall armyworm has become difficult to control because of its resistance as climate change intensifies, while declining yields dismally especially grains which are staple foods in various parts of Africa.
Thus, all these consequences are heavily costing agriculture production, which in turn causes food insecurity on the continent.
Smart farming practices
The discussion of the Africa Climate Summit is a welcoming gesture in Africa’s agricultural sector. This is because the primary discussion was based on solutions related to carbon offsetting or carbon credit marketing systems which can work perfectly in Africa if properly implemented.
The carbon credit system is based on certain companies or entities that emit greenhouse gases and invest in purchasing credits to reduce their carbon footprint. Credits are purchased from individuals applying practices that do not emit or emit less greenhouse gases, such as farmers or companies which reduce carbon emissions or sequestrate carbon.
These practices consist of using non-renewable energy, recycling waste materials, and smart agriculture practices.
Smart agriculture practices include reforestation, organic farming, conservation agriculture, reduced fertiliser and pesticide application, livestock and manure management, peatland and wetland management, and rangeland management.
Carbon storage and capture
These agriculture-based practices include carbon capture, and carbon storage, and limit carbon emissions, unlike other non-renewable energy sources (hydropower, solar, and wind), which only reduce carbon emissions but cannot capture or store carbon.
At this time, efforts to halt climate change no longer require preventing greenhouse gas emissions, but further reacquires harvesting the already accumulated gases from the atmosphere, which can only occur through photosynthesis, and this takes us back to the critical role of agriculture.
In addition, the credit system supplements incentives for farmers, which can be beneficial for improving their income beyond selling their farm outputs, either from crops or livestock. This can be a fast-forward pathway to end the poverty and food insecurity challenges prevalent in smallholder farming in Africa.
In addition, the application of smart agriculture practices reduces input requirements, especially for fertilisers, pesticides, and herbicides, which are costly to smallholder farmers in Africa. Thus, farmers can reduce input costs while their farming operations remain sustainable over longer periods.
Research and training
Going forward, two critical and primitive issues should be addressed: educating farmers, especially rural smallholder farmers and research on carbon credit system dynamics. Efforts should be made to spread information about what, why, and how of the carbon credit system to farmers.
In Africa, there are tendencies whereby opportunities like this became available to only commercial farmers, with a systematic exclusion of smallholder farmers due to lack of information.
Thus, spreading information and training to rural farmers who are major stewards of agriculture on the continent can facilitate easy assimilation entire process.
Research is crucial for proper data generation and designing tools that allow suitable assessment and evaluation of the quantities of gases emitted by buyers and the carbon sequestration potential of sellers. This will also enhance fairness in pricing to both buyers and sellers.
On-site research is key
In Africa, research has been a major issue in speeding up development, not only in agriculture but also in other sectors. In addition, the research should be on-farm or on-site based on the inclusion of farmers witnessing as key stakeholders, such that they can easily understand the process. The research will also influence proper and informed policies as well as certification of the carbon credit system.
There is no doubt that agriculture is a key sector in the fight against climate change. The Nairobi Declaration is the genesis and hope of the continent’s autonomic efforts in fighting climate change at the continental level and smallholder farmers should be prioritised as part of agriculture-based solutions since they are the major stewards of agriculture in Africa.
- Hamond Motsi is a preparatory PhD scholar at the faculty of agrisciences at Stellenbosch University, interested in sustainable agriculture and agricultural development in Africa. He holds an MSc in agronomy (cum laude) from Stellenbosch University, a BSc Hons in crop science, and a BSc in crop and soil science (cum laude), both from the University of Fort Hare. You can contact him at onehammond2@gmail.com. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Food For Mzansi.
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