Climate Change is a reality: How can women small-holder farmers better deal with its effects?
By Nicholas Ngepah[1]
Climate change is no longer a myth in Southern African communities. It is a reality with tangible effects being felt especially by women and the poor in rural areas. Climate change is putting our food security in jeopardy, affecting what, when and how much people eat; not only in other parts of the world but also in Southern Africa. This year, there have been some significant weather events in Southern Africa, showing the effects of climate change. Climate change has mainly manifested itself through phenomena such as droughts, floods, extreme temperatures and changing rainfall patterns. For example, 2013 ended in Zimbabwe with a record drought around the Ruti area in Masvingo province. The area most affected by the drought had benefitted from an irrigation scheme provided by Oxfam and its partners. The scheme received water from the nearby dam and served primarily women and small-holder farmers whose farming activities have the potential to alleviate food insecurity in the area.. The levels of the Dam went so low that the water (that used to serve both rural small scale farms and commercial farms) was diverted to serve only commercial sugar farms. The rural small scale farmers that depended on the dam for irrigation of their farms as their main source of livelihood found themselves going without water for farming. this resulted in failed crops and lower than expected harvest for that season. 2014 however started with another kind of challenge, with heavy rains that resulted in an overflow of the same dam. The same people who lacked water only two months before for farming found themselves as victims of serious floods.
The Tokwe Mukosi emergency in Zimbabwe can also be seen as a manifestation of climate change. The Tokwe Mukosi dam was conceived as a means to ensure access to water for local communities and large scale sugar farms in the water-scarce Masvingo Province of Zimbabwe. In 2014, however, the area experienced massive, unexpected rainfall that flooded the dam’s catchment area and displaced over 17000 families; many of whom lost their homes, crops and livestock to the rising waters.
The frequency of these hydrological events has shown marked increases in Southern African countries. The United Nations Statistics Office[2] documented only a total of eight hydrological events among the countries[3] within the Zambezi basin during the decade from 1980 to 1999. The number mildly increased to twelve in the following decade (1990 to 1999). However, in the past decade (2000 to 2009), the number rose significantly to 77 events. Figure 1 shows that the worst affected countries in terms of number of hydrological events are Angola, Malawi and Mozambique.
Figure 1: Number of hydrological events in Southern Africa from 1980 to 2009
The seriousness of the situation of climate change in Southern Africa can also be pictured in terms of the number of people it increasingly affects. The eight events of the decade 1980-1989 affected 1918 000 people in total. The twelve events of the decade 1990-1999 affected just about 2190500 persons in total (representing only a mild increase). However, the 77 events of the decade 2000-2009 affected up to 11405434 people, the worst affected countries being Mozambique, Zambia and Malawi (Figure 2).
Figure 2: Number of people affected by hydrological events in Southern Africa from 1980 to 2009
Emerging predictions suggest that the effect of climate change on global hunger will be worse than previously imagined. Initial glimpses into the IPCC’s 5th Assessment Report predict global agricultural yields to decrease on average by 2 per cent a decade. At the same time, demand for food will be expected to increase by 14 per cent per decade amidst rapidly rising population. Impacts of climate change on food yields, together with increased food demand militate with other factors to put pressure on food prices. In Southern Africa, food price inflation has seen a very significant upward rise (1.5 in 2010, 7.0 in 2011 and 7.2 in 2012[4]).
In Southern Africa, because many women small scale farmers face uncertain land rights, struggle to access productive assets and usually rely on rain-fed agriculture, they are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change – especially the severe hydrological events outlined above. If women small scale farmers are to adapt to climate change in agriculture, a comprehensive set of measures needs to be put in place targeting them in particular.
In Southern Africa, interventions have to include the following key points:
· Ensuring access to, use of and control of productive natural resources such as water, land and seeds, by women small-holder farmers within Southern Africa
· Creating an equitable and pro-women, pro-small holder agricultural investment climates,
· Agricultural incentives should be tailored to and targeted at women and small-holder farmers,
These interventions are only part of the solution. However, by ensuring women smallholder farmers’ access to the very resources that climate change takes away, may significantly empower them to continue the production of food that the region so desperately needs. Furthermore, by ensuring that they have access to agricultural incentives and by creating an investment climate that is particularly sensitive to their vulnerability, it is possible to help small holder farmers bounce back from the vagaries of climate change-related disasters.
[1] Nicholas Ngepah is an Associate Professor of Economics, and the Senior Regional Research Adviser for Oxfam in Southern Africa: Contact:
[2] http://unstats.un.org/unsd/environment/Hydro_disasters.htm (last visited 24/03/2014).
[3] These countries are Angola, Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
[4] FAO (2013), Global and Regional Food Consumer Price Inflation Monitoring, FAO report Issue2: http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/templates/ess/documents/consumer/CPI_Oct_2013.pdf (last accessed 24/03/2014)