Evidently the unforeseen intrusion of the monstrous El Nino drought into our world has to a great extend created an acute need for our farming society to diversify our approaches to agriculture if we are to keep up with its prolonged visit.
Our history with this drought induced largely by changes in climatic conditions began as early as 2015. The year within which crop farmers mostly felt its sting. The arrival of El Nino meant no rain fall for overwhelmingly long periods and which was paralleled by no ordinary droughts known to us.
Ever since the unpleasant visit of this message the drought sent to us by global warming, food insecurities have spread widely across our country. Looking at the statistics, 57% of households now live below the poverty line.
With this in view, no sane person can deny the fact that we have all felt the scourging of the flaming claws of the El Nino drought.
The undeniable truth is that we Africans, Basotho to be more exact, are naturally agriculturalists. This can be seen by the fact that farming characterized and continues to dominate and form the integral part of our economies and means of sustenance of our communities.
We are known for either one of the following: crop husbandry or animal husbandry, both of which rely solely on the environment for productivity. Our success rests on the likes of favourable climatic conditions. With the uncalled for intrusion of El Nino drought our survival came to the verge of being an impossibility compared to what already existed.
The prevalence of this drought has brought morbid fear upon many of our local farmers, owing to the fact that extended periods of drought crushed hopes of ever reaping any crop or rearing livestock.
For one, I believe El Nino should have known, before paying us a visit, that in our world enough sunlight and a fair amount of rain are what we call inviting surprises. Or is that too much to ask for?
Drastic changes in the climate patterns have brought upon our communities unparalleled water shortages, and have also contributed in keeping us as strangers to prosperity. Vicious attack by the El Nino has brought our pride upon its knees, because it has by virtue become the radical force behind our dire need for transformed agricultural practices.
Most notably is the fact that the agribusiness sector has been the most vulnerable to changes in climate change, since it relies so much on the quality of environment and surrounding conditions. The heatwave that struck our nations beginning in 2015, encompassed with the El Nino outwitted our traditional modes of going about life.
Generally our farmlands and rangelands can all testify to the fact that our constant companion – El Nino – has been rather merciless to all life. People, crops and animals are in a concert in testifying, as evidenced by the tremendous declension in our productivity.
Which is why we were forced to learn of our desperate need for the use of climate-smart agriculture: which centers around the idea of efficient use of inputs, climate change resilience, and greenhouse gas emission reduction.
The underlying emphasis is on the sustainability of agricultural productivity and income. Equally important is an urgent need with regard to combating climate change. In essence, the idea behind climate-smart agriculture is agricultural reform.
The readily available example of the application of climate-smart agriculture is our local Greenlife Farm. In an effort to struggle against current threats of climate change, Leutsoa Khobotlo, founder of Greenlife Farm has adopted in his experimentation the use of hybrid seed and agricultural-productivity enhancing technology, the likes of greenhouses.
This enterprise has recently brought into play the concept of “competition of sunlight.” He began the application of this concept with zeal tomatoes, and with satisfying results that came up, he now uses it on a much larger scale. As opposed to being fearful of the heatwave, through the above concept, we can take advantage of it.
This concept rests on the assumption that the productivity of crops depends on the ability of plant cover to intercept incident radiation- a rather scientific term- which is the function of the leaf area available, the architecture of vegetation cover and conversion efficiency of the energy captured by the plant into biomass.
With the successful experiments of Mr. Khobotlo our hope of surviving climatic changes is once again rising.
The period between 2016-2017 was a long one with no rains whatsoever, our only constant companion being the schizophrenic heat that left us with only a limited number of reservoirs while squandering the great majority.
Many if not all of our communities knew nothing of sleep most of the days as cues for drinking water were often longer than usual. Group farming was especially impossible for rain-reliant farmers.
The dramatic climate change, that often prowled like a roaring lion, seized us like an unsuspecting prey and brought with it episodes of deadly patterns of extreme El Nino drought, that almost exterminated all our agricultural hopes and aspirations.
Food insecurities that were incubated by El Nino have deepened the poverty level of the already poverty-stricken households as food prices also escalated.
However, 2018 has been good to us with her showers of rain that meant the year of harvest. The upside was her notorious offspring. The hailstorm that destroyed most of our crops and fruits. Continued heavy rainfalls also translate into erosion of fertile soils in some areas further complicating farming.
If we’re to be victorious in our struggle against prolonged visits of adverse climate change, construction of several and bigger water reservoirs can significantly lead to a fair amount of reduction.
Domestication of some research and technology can also help in mitigating the effects of the El Nino drought: who would otherwise annihilate all forms of life as known to us.
Failure to integrate climate-smart agriculture into our systems would be to our own demise. With the collaboration between the communities and relevant government ministries and non-governmental organizations, climate change can be successfully wrestled with in Lesotho.