Climate Change and African Agriculture

by Natasha Chart · 2009-06-05 07:14:00 UTC
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Drought; from the collection of the International Rice Research InstituteWhile climate change is sadly acidifying the seas and threatening the US' northeastern coastline, it's also threatening agriculture.

African agriculture is expected to be so hard hit that there are entire regions that may become unsuitable for growing crops because the effective yearly growing season is going to shrink to 90 days or less. These regions will have to convert to livestock agriculture and maize, Africa's favorite crop since it was introduced in the colonial era, will become impossible to cultivate in much of the continent.

Jasmin Melvyn of Reuters reports:

... Climate change could cost the African continent more farmland than the United States uses to plant its eight major field crops combined, according to a study published in the June issue of Environmental Science and Policy.

Farming on up to 1 million square kilometers (247 million acres) of land in Africa could subside by 2050 as climate change makes areas too hot and dry for growing crops, the study said.

The latest U.S. Agriculture Department data puts plantings of the eight major U.S. field crops combined at 246 million acres for the coming year. ...

Bringing livestock to these areas could be, given proper grazing management, a boon to African soils even now. Healthy grasslands are supposed to be grazed and depend on the process for nutrients and cultivation. Deliberate human management of livestock grazing can significantly improve soil health and restore its fertility and could be a counterbalance to global warming (full report here, paid access).

But what do you want to bet that what they'll get is grain-hungry CAFOs, instead of good extension advice about how to get the most out of grazing livestock?

Anyway, it puts a different perspective on the rush by wealthy countries to buy up farm land in Africa that I wrote about yesterday. These issues really are all tied together with our common fates, and as Benjamin Franklin once said, we can all hang together or we will all hang separately.

(Photo credit: International Rice Research Institute on Flickr.)

Natasha Chart
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