Climate change: What next for food producers?

Some of the indigenous seeds in a seed bank belonging to Francisca Mbuli Kitheka, a small scale farmer from Yatta Sub County and Machakos County which she uses in her ecological farming activities. PHOTO COURTESY

The Earth is growing warmer. The phenomenon, climate change, has divided opinion with one group recognising the threat and the other resting on their lairs with zilch concern.

Caught in the crossfire of arguments are farmers, majority of who seek the opinion of scientists for direction in the wake of unpredictable weather patterns.

In recent years, research groups in agriculture have dedicated their time to developing seeds that can withstand diseases and – most importantly – high temperatures and drought conditions.

For instance, the Water Efficient Maize for Africa (Wema) project by Africa Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) was hatched to develop drought-tolerant and insect-pest protected maize hybrids.

This would ultimately improve yields.

“We have come up with 59 white maize varieties already in the market,” Dr Gospel Omanya, a manager at AATF says. “Our maize is drought tolerant and water efficient and therefore suitable for arid and semi-arid zones in the continent.”

And while Kenyan farmers may not understand global warming at the molecular level, they have firsthand experience of scorched maize and shriveled produce.

“We are getting worried of the weather. We can’t predict the rain like our forefathers did. We have lost crops and given up. All we can manage are vegetables which we grow with water from sand dams,” says Alice Wambua, a farmer from Kitonyoni in Makueni.

Bleak future

Her farm, which she depends on for maize, sorghum and beans, is a joke of dying stumps and wilted leaves. All this, she says, is the result of “the scorching sun and an unforgiving environment.”

Without maize, sorghum, and beans (considered staple foods in Kenya), farmers like Alice are looking at a bleak future and are in need of urgent solutions.

Behind shriveling farm produce, there are a myriad problems climate change bears.

According to Dr Boddupalli Prasanna, director of the global maize program at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT), maize – the most widely grown staple crop in Africa – suffers easy suppression with higher temperatures.

He says: “Maize has male and female parts at different locations. Climate change affects the development of these parts such that they mature at different times. If the female part is ready and the tassel have no pollen there will be no produce. The reverse is also true.”

Prasanna says farmers have no choice but to adjust to the climatic patterns by perhaps adopting new farming systems.

“The dependence that farmers have on maize and similar crops may need to change,” he says. “Farmers should start looking at other food crops that can do well with the different climatic patterns.”

Ultimately, Prasanna observes, to keep the country food sufficient, the farming community must embrace seed varieties that can withstand extreme conditions.

“Researchers are working round the clock to find crop varieties that can do well under particular climatic strains. Farmers should consider using certified seeds suitable for their climatic zones,” Prasanna admonishes.

Kienyeji seeds

Herein lies the crux of the matter. Not all farmers agree that seed varieties developed through research are the solution. One such farmer is Francesca Mbuli Kitheka from Yatta, Makueni.

Francisca has taken to replenishing her own seed bank from what she harvests. Her seeds, she swears, are “way better than what farmers buy from seed companies.”

Her inference is based on ‘research’ she conducted herself.

She explains: “I bought and used hybrid seeds. I was impressed and then flustered afterwards.”

The first harvest was substantially good, she says. However, the second filial generation performed poorly; she says she almost got nothing. “I believe seeds that cannot propagate into new generations are substandard,” she adds.

She refers to her seeds as kienyeji (homegrown), passed down over generations by forefathers.

“These seeds work with our soils,” she says, “better than foreign seeds prepared in the laboratory. They blend with our climate and have conformed to the environment. On a bad season, at least I am assured of something rather than nothing.”

Francesca is not willing to try professionally packaged seeds. Ironically, she has the same reasons as researchers working round the clock coming up with new seed varieties: climate change.

Despite decades of farming experience, Samson Kiptai no longer knows what to make of climate change. It is only last year that he (together with 300 other farmers) lost more than 450 acres of maize crop in Sandai, Baringo County.

Kiptai is the chairman of Cheploch Irrigation Scheme in Baringo South. He says the crop “just dried up and could not sustain the heat.”

What hurts him most is the fact that the farmers – working as a team – used seeds from a prominent seed company which promised results as long as farmers tended to the crop.

“They told us that the maize variety was perfect for Baringo: that it would perform well. All we needed to do is till, weed and apply fertiliser as recommended. We believed that we would harvest substantial produce despite prevailing weather conditions but that was never to happen.”

The farmers took a loan from Equity Bank to finance the project and are now at a stymie on how they will pay the debt.

Reduced productivity

Baringo is traditionally known to be arid. Rivers are seasonal and not dependable for agriculture.

Even so, Kiptai admits that rainfall has grown erratic in the recent times compared to the olden days.

Kenya – as does the rest of sub-Saharan Africa – depends by and large on rain fed agriculture.

Worse still, agriculture accounts for 85 per cent of the country’s economy.

Dr Michael Obora from the Ministry of Agriculture recommends that Kenya adopts effective seed systems as well as set up breeding programs to match up to climate change threat.

“Going forward, it is likely that the earth will grow warmer. Heat will cause drought and reduce productivity,” opines Obora.

An increase of even one degree will create a domino effect: changing patterns of precipitation, increased pest and diseases, low crop performance and ultimately little or no produce.

In 2011, Maize lethal necrosis (MLN) was discovered in Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ethiopia and DR Congo.

The disease caused significant reduction in maize output.

Prasanna does not believe that MLN has any connections to climate change. He however recognises the importance of a changing climate on disease transmission and progression.

“MLN has always existed. There is literature to show that the disease is not really new. It was however the first time scientists were noticing the disease in these countries. Indeed, it is true that weather and climate affects disease processes; and that should rightfully concern stakeholders,” Prasanna says.

The scientists are unanimous on one thing: that seed type and varieties are crucial in mitigating climate change.

Seeds used by farmers for planting are a core part of the equation, if not quintessential.

Across the divide many agree that something is happening. What it is and how to react is the foggy part.