Let us all adopt climate smart agricultural practices

In the era of Climate Change, Botswana has no choice but to adapt if she is ever to defend herself against damages caused by the change in the average weather patterns that have come to define our daily lives.

Therefore, every Motswana has a role to play in the reduction of carbon emissions, effects of climate change, and their concomitant effects on the environment.

This was the rallying call by the Minister of Infrastructure and Housing Development Dr. Thapelo Matsheka recently during the commemoration of the World Habitat Day.

The theme for this year’s World Habitat Day is: ‘ accelerating urban action for a carbon- free world’. According to the United Nations, the theme recognises that cities are responsible for some 70 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions with transport, buildings, energy, and waste management accounting for the bulk of urban greenhouse gas emissions.

Botswana’s vulnerabilities are too evident. Landlocked and semiarid; high rainfall variability and recurring droughts; maximum average temperatures ranging from 22 to 33oC – sadly, these extreme weather events are projected to get worse with the advent of the catastrophic climate change.

Worryingly, as Minister Matsheka stated, these changing weather patterns have affected agricultural production in and out, which has had adverse effects on many people’s livelihoods and continues to threaten food security.

One way to avoid disaster is by building climate resilience in our agricultural production systems and the deliberate adoption of climate- smart technologies across the economic value chain.

Farmers – both in crop and livestock production - require reliable early warning information in order to manage their production systems, hence the imperative for the Department of Meteorological Services to reach out through installation of well- equipped weather stations throughout the country.

Also, as suggested by Patrick Verkooijen, CEO of Global Centre on Adaptation, we have to get the appropriate resources into the hands of farmers; the stresstolerant crops and livestock, new forms of irrigation, and better ways of managing the soil.

Let’s look at irrigation, for example. Globally, 20 percent of cropland is irrigated. In Africa, this figure is 5 percent. We can improve adaptation by increasing irrigation, and we can leapfrog traditional development pathways by, for example, going solar.

We can also harness tillage systems such as strip planting that builds resilience and reduces the amount of carbon dioxide that is released into the atmosphere.

Further, we have to strive to improve our soil fertility through infusion of nutrients as well as keep pests and diseases at bay to ensure good harvest for our farmers.

Climate change is the reality of our times it sees no colour or economic status. Like, Covid- 19, it does not discriminate, so the sooner everybody wakes up to this reality the better for us all.

We must all worry about the inheritance we are building for posterity, is it one of wealth as was bequeathed to us, or is it of indigence? The time to change our ways of doing things is now!