ZAMBIA'S TOP VARSITY JOINS FIGHT AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE

By HAPPY MULOLANI

Climate change is on top of the agenda for most countries. Its devastating effects on productive sectors of some countries is immeasurable. Zambia is one of the countries affected by climate change as it has experienced droughts, pests, floods and deforestation. 

According to the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), this year alone, severe drought has negatively impacted 11million people in nine countries, which includes Zambia. This drought is considered the worst of its kind recorded in 35 years. Admittedly, these affected countries require immediate support to address this problem.

In Zambia, the agriculture sector remains key and is considered the second after the mining sector. This prompted the country to prioritise the agriculture sector through development plans such as the Seventh National Development (7NDP), which outlines the importance of not “leaving anyone behind” as a way of fostering the country’s economic growth.

Given the status quo, the University of Zambia is one of the country’s research institutions which has embarked on developing climate smart agriculture technologies to address climate change in order to assist smallholder farmers upscale their agriculture production and productivity.

University of Zambia Dean of the School of Agricultural Sciences, Benson Chishala explained that the University embarked on developing research initiatives aimed at addressing the country’s climatic shocks and boosting food security.

Dr Chishala underscored the importance of embarking on research aimed at immediately providing a panacea to the effects of climate change affecting especially rural farmers.

And Senior Lecturer in the Department of Plant Science under the School of Agricultural Sciences, Kalaluka Munyinda reaffirmed the need to mitigate the climatic shocks and avert food insecurity of most smallholder farmers in light of the drought which had hit the country, resulting in a decline of yields per hectare.

He explained that the institution has developed improved varieties such as Maize MGV640 and legumes which produce higher yields per hectare.

“These varieties record between 16 tonnes per hectare to 20 tonnes per hectare. This is in contrast to the initial 10 tonnes prior to developing these improved varieties,” disclosed Dr Munyende.

These developed varieties are expected to help farmers in engaging not only climate smart agriculture practices but also have better yields during the 2020/2021 farming season.

These sentiments come in the wake of the recent launch of the National Crop Planting season in Eastern province by Republican President Edgar Lungu.

The institution has on-going trials of seed varieties, which include maize and legumes in Lusitu and Chirundu to assess their suitable and production capacities.

But these initiatives have been marred by some challenges such as financing which would have seen more varieties developed for the betterment of farmer communities.

Assistant Dean of the School of Agricultural Sciences, John Shindano observes that the institution has been working with some partners in combating the effects of climate change amidst low financing. Of concern is that the fight against climate change requires concerted efforts if more farmers are to be assisted and improve food security.

Dr Shindano’s views resonate with a recent report released which argues that there has been low financing for climate change. This notion calls for increased financing from partners and stakeholders to contribute towards addressing climate change.

Most of the financing for research is externally sourced but the need to re-think this approach by local partners getting on board to help finance climate change in the local context is obvious. This approach is likely to promote more broad based solutions to curb the devastating effects of climate change

Earlier this year, IFAD is one of the international organization which has released US$12 million to assist rural small-scale farmers in adapting to climate change and reduce green house gas emissions. Equally, the Swedish government is also one of the cooperating partners of IFAD, which availed funds to effectively implement and contribute towards reducing climatic changes this year.

IFAD President Gilbert Houngbo expressed concern on the need to avert the severe climatic conditions. This resulted in the release of the funds towards supporting the fight against the effects of climate change of households and incomes of rural farmers.

It is notable that investment is key to address climate change as it will enable rural people and farmers take adaptation actions in their various agriculture value chains. 

Ultimately, research and financing are important catalysts which need to bring about positive changes through developing climate resilient varieties and also ensure farmers adapt to these initiatives aimed at promoting increased food security. Thus, support is required to be directed towards expertise to help devise mechanisms aimed at improving productivity within a competitive environment like Zambia.