The African climate change challenges and dilemmas

Along side is an example of a vertical garden

Africa’s diversity is unrivaled globally in its beauty and variety. From the Atlas Mountains in the North to the Table Mountains in the south, from the Gulf of Aden to the Gore islands, offers astonishing beauty and unbelievable wonders of nature. The mighty Congo River with the thundering falls of the Zambezi explodes the imagination of the snaking Nile through the great lakes to the ancient land of the pharaohs. Without a doubt, the Rift valley with the snowcapped mountains at the equator does not fade the memories of the seventh wonder of the world where teeming herds of wild beasts at the Mara are driven by the cycles of the monsoon rains make their seasonal journeys. The snowcapped Mt Kenya stranding the equator, the mighty high Kilimanjaro, and the mountains of the moon (Ruwenzori defining the boundaries of the Great Rift Valley.

The diversity prism

Africa has the 3 lines of latitude across its breath, defining the times and seasons. From the southern tip closest to the South Pole and northwards bordering the Mediterranean Sea, Africa is home to the most diverse of climates. The Kalahari and the Namib Deserts comprise the cold desert in the south while the Sahara desert dominates the boundary between central and North Africa. The African diversity is reflected by the great climatic differences, altitude differences (from sea level to the Ethiopian highlands) cultural differences, religious differences, and colonial historical differences. All these differences influence and somehow make the challenges either magnified or not well understood as indicated below.

Current Environmental challenges

a.??????Decreased agricultural yields

As the climate becomes uncertain drought and floods are increasingly decreasing agricultural yields or resulting in failed harvests during extreme periods. Unsustainable intensive agricultural practices continue to reduce land productivity and monoculture of crops such as maize increase sensitivity to drier conditions already predicted to become more frequent while soil degradation is at its all-time high. Failed production and declining yields increase food insecurity and increases dependency to relief food and results in increased poverty with consequent rural-urban migration. Poor nutritional quality of monoculture crops results in declining nutritional status for farmers making them more vulnerable to preventable nutritional-induced ailments. During drought periods, many livestock herds die from lack of pastures and fodder while the cost of commercial feeds becomes outreach to many farmers increasingly rendering the once-wealthy livestock farmers to lives of destitution and misery. Some areas conflict of pasture, grazing land, crops and livestock are increasing the fragility of the rural population.

b.?????Forest land encroachment

As crop productivity declines, farmers’ options result in encroachment of forest lands increasing the rate of environmental degradation as more land is cleared for crop production even in fragile areas such as steep slopes, swampy areas, and sensitive habitats for endangered species. Increasing land subdivision, continuous cultivation, and land-use change increase environmental degradation and increased carbon emissions. During drought years, livestock farmers search for pastures even in the conservation areas in a bid to save their livestock from pasture scarcity.?Domestic energy scarcity leads to forest encroachment in search of firewood while poor sources of income lead to the burning of charcoal from forest trees to sustain their livelihoods.?Increased charcoal burning to support income sources and avail cheaper energy sources for low-income urban settlements leads to the spiral of a degraded environment.

c.??????Human-wildlife conflict

During the drought periods, as farmers continue to encroach in otherwise conserved areas, there is increased human-wildlife conflict when either the farmers are intending to invade the previously demarcated wildlife areas with grazing livestock, or opportunistic wild animals feed on the farmer's livestock being more easier to catch. Other conflicts are associated with forest invasions by farmers in search of firewood or increasing areas of cultivation. Resulting from human wildlife conflict always has casualties with negative consequences, while indiscriminate cutting of trees results in massive destruction.

d.?????Increases in foodborne diseases and invasive pests

The increased monocultural practices widely adopted lead to the dependency on one crop species and often lead to increased pest incidence due to absence of natural enemies or lacking the breaking of the lifecycle of some insect’s types with many generations of pests or diseases cycles throughout the year. The resulting challenge of the pests and diseases has increased the dependency on synthetic pesticides thereby increasing biodiversity loss, accumulation of pesticides in the soil, and often leaching to the aquatic environment.

e.?????Food loss from extreme climate

During periods of excessive rainfall at planting periods, floods often result in many losses including loss of some food types such as tubers, soil erosion, loss of vegetation and increased soil degradation. Other cases of extreme wet weather during grain harvests result in food losses either directly or indirectly through rots and infestation by a dangerous fungus (mycotoxins) that pose serious health challenges. Droughts which have become frequent increases lost seasons for planting or lost harvests when crops dry in the field from inadequate moisture for finishing the growing cycle.

f.???????Post-harvest losses

The warm tropical climate supports the growth and multiplication of storage pests where pests can have several generations per year, reportedly over 40 % of grains produced in Africa are attacked by storage pests annually leading to postharvest losses estimated at the US $ 12 billion. Due to inefficient and inadequate storage facilities, training and accessibility, most fresh farmers’ produce which is not consumed immediately either ends up being destroyed by storage pests or spoilt from the biological elements of the weather with available data indicating upwards of 60% losses. This results in continuing food insecurity despite production conditions being favorable during some seasons.

g.??????Urban waste management

The increased rural-urban migration has increased the urban population drastically and is projected to increase. The resulting urban bulge has increased waste disposal challenges posing many hazards such as the transmission of communicable diseases, food and water-borne diseases, waste water treatment challenges resulting from poor sanitation, and increasing disease burden. The urban environmental planning aspect is missing and therefore the absence of the basic infrastructure in informal settlements such as portable water and other essential amenities results in inappropriate disposal of waste.

Resulting Economic challenges

1.??????Poor infrastructure

There is an increased rural-urban migration due to the reduction in land productivity, food insecurity, poverty, and lack of economic opportunities in the rural areas. The resulting rural-urban migration from families with no incomes, lead them to settle in informal settlements where they either don’t pay rent, live in deplorable state or cramped houses. The poor infrastructure results in other challenges and vices including insecurity, underage pregnancies, and malnutrition. The informal settlements lack basic amenities such as toilets, clean water, decent housing, access to medical care and most families live with very low dignity.

2.??????Urban waste management

The informal settlements most often encroach on areas such as waste dumping areas where scavenging for recyclable or reusable waste products from affluent neighborhoods are disposed of. The resulting disruption of the planned disposal accompanied by inefficiencies in the town management systems for waste disposal compound the challenge.

3.??????Energy scarcity

Energy scarcity in most of these informal settlements results in the usage of kerosene and charcoal which are more affordable for the low-income earners, while the connection to the mains which is often inadequate economically drains or is not viable. Additionally, power connectivity to the mains is dependent on land ownership and the informal settlements have no land ownership documents. These energy sources are unhealthy in addition to their heavy carbon footprint.?

4.??????Scarcity of storage infrastructure

During production periods, there are often some seasons that are favorable for both grains and other perishable products. There has been scarcity in well managed communal storage facilities often due to poor planning or existing ones are in poor state and accelerate the spoilage of produce. In other instances, value addition to increase shelf life and therefore farmers have to depend on producing every season possibly only what will not go to waste.

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Viable solutions to the challenges

Solutions to these challenges must be evaluated in the lens of ecological, economic and social/ political reasons in the value of sustainability and increasing adaptation and resilience to climate change impacts. Increasing the transformation of urban biomass into biochar for giving back to rural areas will greatly help increase productivity. Cover crops adapted to hot and saline climates must be sought especially when they are able to serve as a source of livestock fodder. Traditional African crop such teff, cassava and yams must be explored in terms of increased production, value addition and processing to enhance their storage duration and increase the user ability in terms of new cuisines or mixtures with other existing foods. An area that’s worth focus is how fermentation processes can be used in the root crops like cassava to produce new derivatives replacing the often expensive alcoholic beverages that increase the loss of foreign exchange. The involvement of Academia, Research Institutions, and Political goodwill at the national, regional, and continental levels will be required for up-scaling skills and exchanging best practices. Converting urban sewage and waste into biogas energy should also be an urgent adaptation. The overall picture should aim at some of the following.

1.??????Regenerative agriculture

Comparing to the previous agricultural progress, the ability to have adequate and nutritious food reduces disease burden from malnutrition and increases the ability of population’s to venture outside of the agricultural space with income from the agricultural produce. Therefore viability of the markets for regenerative agriculture embracing cover crops to provide fodder for livestock while livestock provides manure for the farms will increase productivity. Better livestock will result in increased milk and meat production for consumption and meet market demand. Protecting soil from degradation with the adoption of legume cover crops will reduce the synthetic inputs while yields will stabilize. Perennial Cover crops have been seen to have the potential to sequester on average 315 kg CO2 per Hectare/ year in long term comparison to bare soils.

2.??????Development of efficient storage and food transformation systems

Protection of fresh produce from spoilage and storage of grains effectively for long-term storage will reduce the reported 60 % loss in fruits and vegetables and the 40% grain loss with improved storage reducing the foreign exchange leakage from grain imports. The losses after harvest represent lost inputs, labor, and opportunity costs which will be saved with better storage technologies.

3.??????Conversion of urban Waste to energy

In urban areas, the filling up of landfills and associated greenhouse gas emissions (methane), soil and water contamination from leachates will be controlled through establishment of waste to energy plants that effectively produces electricity or biogas with contraction of the original volumes by more than 90%. Power scarcity will be reduced increasing electrification, reducing power tariffs, and possibly supporting industrial capacity with more jobs created.

4.??????Political good for good governance

The initial adaptation and adoption of these technologies will require visionary leadership and goodwill from political leaders to initiate the projects despite expected resistance from those used to the business as usual practices. Adaptation funds and climate change financing will be required and therefore the political leadership of the leading organization in climate change funds needs to embrace this carbon-neutral program while reducing the bureaucracy and lengthy procedures that delay or derail these ambitions.

Concerted efforts in halting and controlling soil degradation are urgently needed in addition to increasing ways of food production such as vertical gardens even in small areas whereby school-going children need to be taught sustainable agricultural intensification practices (SAIP).