‘Climate change will cause 22% decrease in yields for Africa’s rain-fed
agriculture’
African Development Bank’s Vice President for
Power, Energy, Climate and Green Growth, Dr. Kevin Kariuki, has said climate
change will cause a decrease in yields of eight to 22 per cent for Africa’s
rain-fed stable crops over the next 20 years. He spoke at a webinar titled,
‘Are Climate-Smart and Digital Agriculture Solutions the Silver Bullet to
Attract Youth?’
The webinar highlighted the potential of
climate-smart and digital agriculture in attracting young people and, thereby,
rejuvenating an ageing global agricultural sector.
Dr. Kariuki lamented that agriculture across most
of sub-Saharan Africa is still predominantly rain-fed and, therefore, extremely
vulnerable to both short-term fluctuations and long-term changes in climate
conditions.
“It is the most exposed sector, with estimates
indicating that climate change will cause a decrease in yields of eight to 22%
for Africa’s rain-fed staple crops over the next 20 years,” Kariuki said.
The 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference,
COP27 is dubbed ‘African COP’, as the impact of climate change on African
countries will be a key theme of discussions.
Agriculture and food systems as well as the role
of youths in the climate agenda will also be a critical focus of COP27, slated
for November.
African Development Bank’s Vice President for
Agriculture, Human and Social Development, Dr. Beth Dunford, noted that while
agriculture holds tremendous potential for job creation in Africa, its current
traditional form is not attractive to young people for various reasons,
including negative perceptions.
Dunford said: “Who wants to wear overalls, dig the
field with a hoe or drive a tractor when we can do it in a suit and dust coat,
right? However, technology makes agriculture cool enough to motivate them to
use tech-enabled enterprises to be part of agricultural value chains.”
The Senior Director for Africa at the Global
Centre on Adaptation, Prof. Anthony Nyong, explained that there is a gap in the
agriculture sector in Africa, and that is in the use of digital solutions.
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