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Q&A: Studying Kenyan Farmers’ Efforts to Adapt
Zukiswa Zimela interviews JUDI WAKHUNGU, executive director, African Centre for Technology Studies
NAIROBI, Mar 24, 2011 (IPS) – Climate change has become an important part of the development agenda. In Africa, farmers and consumers alike are feeling its effects on productivity and food security.
Professor Judi Wakhungu is the lead researcher on the Community Based Adaptation to Climate Change project, which is gathering data and case studies of adaptation to provide policy makers with technical and scientific evidence to guide them.
Q: How will the results from the research project help farmers?
A: We are working in eight different countries and looking to see how communities are coping with climate change.
What we are doing in Kenya is comparing the dry land area in eastern Kenya with another one which is in western Kenya, close to Lake Victoria. The experiences in the two zones are almost opposite each other in this regime of erratic weather that we are experiencing.
The one closest to the lake is challenged with continual flooding every year, while in the zone on the eastern side, rains fail to fall.
We don’t have the answers: what we are doing is trying to look at what the different communities are experiencing and then drawing on that to inform policy.
What we hope to see is plans to be implemented as international policy so that we can have institutions and laws on how we are supposed to respond when the situation becomes tragic. At present we do not have a response mechanism.
Q: What are examples of farmers who are already successfully adapting to climate change?
A: For instance in eastern Kenya in the Makueni district, we saw a lot of innovation in terms of how farmers were coping with drought. Whereas in Oyola and Wakesi, which is near Kisumu we saw that farmers were having difficulties coping with the flooding.
In some cases farmers depend almost entirely on the national government to get seed [with drought or flood-resistant qualities]. On the other hand, in some communities, we have found that the farmers themselves have really become innovators. In the sense that some farmers now became specialists and are able to produce hybrid seeds which could cope with the extreme climate.
Q: What are your concerns with farmers relying on the government for seed?
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