IRISH AID WORKER WARNS OF LOOMING CRISIS
farmers in Ireland who might be reluctant to make changes to reduce carbon emissions, she said: “To my friends who are also farmers in Ireland, I’m in deep pain and really worried” due to reduced yields and dry spells.
“I wonder if they could manage and cope with the climate change effects as well as I have. they could withstand the kind of weather patterns that I face in my community.” Speaking through an interpreter, she added: “I’m urging farmers that they should take part and they should adapt.
“I am encouraging the farmers in Ireland to adapt to the new practices so that they all fight together in reducing climate change.”
During the rainy season, Malita’s village is surrounded by the green hues of the mountains, maize and rice fields and banana, mango and guava trees.
Threat
But at the end of this year’s rainy season, the fields are pockmarked by wilting crops.
The remoteness of the village also causes its problems — after Cyclone Freddy hit in March last year, the village was rendered inaccessible.
“In a way, it’s an existential threat to certain areas of southern Malawi because if [rising temperatures] continue, people will not be able to live in those areas,” Mr Kelly said.
“So the people in Nsanje and Chikwawa... if temperatures continue to rise, it’ll just be too hot for people to live there. ”
Grandmother Agnes Jafali grows maize and rice to feed herself and her family.
Having lived through Cyclone Freddy, Agnes (54) feels lucky to be alive despite it destroying her crops.
A year on, when heavy rain falls or when the wind blows strongly, she still fears that it is a sign of another powerful cyclone.
Asked what she would say to people who might say such events are just changing weather, or even “God’s doing”, she said she believes some things are human’s handiwork.
“Sometimes it’s our handiwork which brings us such changes, and we are not even prepared for such changes, yet it’s our own handiwork,” she said, speaking through an interpreter.
“It’s not God, it’s us.”