Podcast: Climate-adaptable crops uncovered

Numerous discussions are happening around climate change and how rising temperatures and extreme weather conditions are increasingly affecting food security. In this episode of Farmer’s Inside Track, experts highlight what climate-adaptability and climate-adaptable crops mean. They also explore some of the benefits of adopting climate-smart agricultural practices.

Sixolise Mcinga, soil scientist and senior analyst in sustainable agriculture for GreenCape, and Thabile Nkunjana, agricultural economist at the National Agricultural Marketing Council, Diana Mngomezulu, MSc plant breeding student at the University of the Free State, and Dr Zaid Bello, researcher at the Agricultural Research Council, joins this podcast for a discussion on climate change.

Understanding climate-adaptable crops

Mcinga says, “It is very important to highlight what climate adaptability is before we can dive deeper into understanding what is meant by climate adaptable crops. The simplest Google definition to that is climate adaptability refers to adjustments in ecological, social, or economic systems in response to climate change.”

“When we talk about climate-smart agriculture, we are looking at an integrated approach which is meant to manage or improve the productivity of crop lens, livestock, forests and sometimes fisheries,” Mcinga says.

These technologies aim to meet sustainable development goals in the agricultural field. There’s a lot of work that is being done around climate change, she explains.

“The department of agriculture, forestry and fisheries has a draft of climate change adaptability and mitigation plan which speaks to all of the adoption technology in response to the harsh effects on climate change, especially in the context of farmers.”