Climate Change Adaptation And Agricultural Development In Africa

Climate Change Adaptation And Agricultural Development In Africa
The major drag on Africa’s development is the underperformance of the agricultural sector, which accounts for a large percentage of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and employment.
The sector’s performance has for quite long been constrained by the inherently low soil fertility, climate change, extreme weather conditions, poor access to improved seeds, fertilizer and poor marketing infrastructure that limits access to market for the outputs.
Although agriculture remains the backbone of many economies in Africa, it has been quite neglected by the majority of the governments leading to a shortage of resources and technical skills needed to adequately support agricultural development.
Many rural financial services, extension officers, applied research and investment in infrastructural projects have declined exposing already underperforming agriculture.
The persistent food insecurity and extreme weather events have exposed the vulnerability of small-scale holders to climate change thereby refocusing attention on the need to increase investment in agriculture; and hence the need to promote climate adaptation in the agricultural sector.
Climate change adaptation helps to mitigate and develop appropriate coping mechanisms to address the adverse impacts of climate change on agriculture.
Climate coping mechanisms improve the ability of people and ecosystems to cope and recover from extreme climate events.
Effective climate adaptation should focus on support for capacity building and decision-making processes that shape social learning, innovation, and technological transfer and development pathways.
Climate adaptation should primarily focus on building resilience and, the capacity of the system to tolerate disturbance without collapsing- a resilient system that can withstand shocks and rebuild itself when necessary.
Best practices in climate change adaptation such as integrated farming systems, conservation agriculture, organic agriculture, crop diversification and rainwater management practices must be widely promoted to cope with the negative impacts of climate change.
The African countries have the potential to produce their own food, but constraining environmental factors and structural deficits interlink with climate change to cause food insecurity.
Therefore, due to the dependence of Africa on agricultural-based economies, agricultural and rural development to promote adaptation to climate change are key pillars of the rural economy.
Climate Change Adaptation And Agricultural Development In Africa