Invest in agriculture to tackle food crisis in East Africa

CPI Financial: In the face of a prolonged drought in East Africa that is threatening the lives of an estimated 10 million people across the region, Geoffrey Livingston, Regional Economist for East and Southern Africa at the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) said: “We need to act now and step up investment in agriculture and smallholder farmers if we want to prevent a major food crisis.”

The effects of climate change have been becoming more and more apparent in the region including in countries like Uganda, Ethiopia and Kenya, where IFAD, a specialised UN agency, works with smallholder farmers. The rise of severe weather such as droughts and flash flooding makes their lives increasingly risky: Pastoralists can not find land to feed their cattle; crops do not have enough water to grow; and poor harvests raise the already high food prices, leaving men, women and children hungry and malnourished.

The unpredictability of rains makes planning extremely difficult for smallholder farmers and pastoralists. This is why IFAD has focused its work in the region on helping smallholder farmers manage the risks imposed upon them by the effects of a changing climate. Natural Resource Management, including reforestation, erosion control, integrated soil fertility management, pasture lands development, and expanding access to water such as rainwater harvesting, are a central feature to IFAD’s country programmes. In Ethiopia, for example, IFAD’s Pastoral Community Development Project, which is co-funded by the World Bank, has taken an active role in rapidly mitigating the impact of droughts on pastoral communities. The project funds an early warning system that once triggered, sends financial assistance provided by the donor community to local districts through their respective regional governments, for the purchase of fodder and food supplements for area livestock....