Gerald Tenywa
22 July 2008
Kampala — FARMERS need to learn new practices to adapt to new climatic changes. A report released by Oxfam, a non-governmental organisation, shows that adaptation can help the communities live with the climatic change that has taken its toll on farming and pastoral communities.
The report, Turning Up the Heat: Climate Change and Poverty in Uganda, notes that for a changing climate, there are winners and losers.
"This is true to some extent for some farmers in some societies."
For instance, Britain is hailing the resurrection of a native wine industry as temperatures rise. In Nepal, farmers are growing bigger and tastier apples than ever before.
However, this is not the case in Uganda. Yofesi Baluku, the executive director of Karughe Farmers Partnership in Kasese district, says local varieties have disappeared due to changes in climate.
"Because of the short rains, we plant crops that mature fast. That is why some pumpkin and cassava varieties that need a lot of rain have disappeared," he says. Florence Mbejuna, a farmer in Bundibugyo, concurs: "Cassava no longer yields anything yet the beans have also failed."
How does she adapt?
"We have stopped seasonal planting. We used to sow in March, but now we plant all year around," Mbejuna says.
Causes of changes in rainfall
The report notes that the rainfall patterns have become erratic and destructive.
According to the report, the changing weather pattern is caused by pollution, especially by gases from industries.
"Most of the current warming is being driven by outpouring of green house gases from coal, oil and gas that powered the industrial revolution in Europe and the US 150 years ago," the report notes.
Way forward
The report calls for natural resources management. "Development cannot be sustainable unless the Government takes natural resource management seriously."
Urgent measures should be taken to prevent land degradation and restore lost wetlands, forests, water bodies and other ecological systems, it concludes.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 New Vision. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
