Mix science, local beliefs to tame climate crisis

 

Adrian Okello is a victim of climate crisis showing some of his flooded rental houses at Mau Mau shopping center in Budalangi. [Benjamin Sakwa, Standard]

To an African, looming hunger may mean poor staple food crop yield or death of livestock due to famine, even if other food varieties are plenty.

This is mostly tied to perceptions and stereotypes. Agriculture, food security and loss and damage appeared several times as collective responsibilities, demands from those responsible for climate crisis and commitments by African leaders in the Nairobi Declaration made at the end of Africa Climate Summit (ACS).

One commitment was “Redoubling our efforts to boost agricultural yields through sustainable practices, to enhance food security while minimising negative environmental impacts; climate-aware and restorative practices.”

The interest in agriculture is unavoidable, as it is the backbone of many economies. But how do we deal with nuances around certain foods or climate action?

At the Climate Action Zone, where farmers, pastoralists, scientists and more experts from the Global South met on the sidelines of the ACS, evidence showed that science, and a bit of challenging local beliefs, was key in improving food security and climate action.

Where, for instance, Maasai people avoided fish “because it looked them in the eye”, the community in Kajiado now eats the delicacy, farms fish and trades in it. It also farms poultry and smaller livestock, as well as keeping bees to reduce their reliance on cattle rearing. The simple science is the food varieties they never took serious never killed anyone.

In the global South, the challenge becomes communication of science in ways that resonate with grassroots communities, including those that look to the sky, or feel weird body temperatures to predict bad weather. Opportunity lies in building capacity for more timely crucial information sharing.

In Bangladesh, for instance, as showed at the Climate Action Zone, Imams and community leaders are involved in passing new scientific ideas and information to the grassroots. Trainers simplify scientific information and combine with traditional knowledge to get innovative and culturally sensitive solutions.

This means scientists must go beyond laboratories, journals, conferences, lecture halls and boardrooms to communicate in ways that help quick adoption of practices that enhance sustainable land and water management.

Collaboration among nations, sharing of research findings and implementation of recommendations, especially on drought-resistant crop varieties, climate-smart farming techniques, and soil conservation methods, will reduce individual nations’ tendency to repeat processes.

The global south governments must support capacity building and knowledge transfer, including by training scientists, extension workers, and farmers in climate-smart agriculture techniques and use of climate information. While scientists aim for grassroots, it is imperative that communities are sensitised to seek information. For instance, how long would it take an extension officer to randomly visit a home, versus if individuals sought them?

Besides, people must stop normailising suffering and demand climate action from leaders. This is also an opportunity for African firms to focus on Africa with, and for deals. The assumption only foreigners have money is misguided.

Meanwhile, agriculture remains panacea to food insecurity, a pillar for manufacturing, and avenue for more innovation. As Jackline Koin, an Alliance for Science advocate for resilience and sustainable development says, if 50 per cent of farmers are driven to poverty by crop failure, or just Loss and Damage, half of the population will be poor, against the SDG1 (No Poverty). Let’s marry science and indigenous knowledge to minimise Loss and Damage.

The writer is a climate justice advocate. @lynno16