In developing
countries, the agriculture sector is expected to produce food and income to
support food and nutrition security as well as contribute to poverty reduction for
a growing population. Climate change is already threatening to significantly undermine
these expectations as its impacts in the sector are direct and pose serious adverse
effects on the populace. The agricultural sector including crops, forests,
livestock and fisheries productivity will be affected by changes in climatic
conditions including:
- Availability of good quality water
- Habitats and species distribution
- Timing and length of growing season
- Distribution of agro-ecological zones
- Ecosystem stresses (erosion by water and wind, acidification, salinization, biological degradation) and so on.
Climate change affects
everyone albeit differently depending on their livelihoods and socio-economic
status. The most adverse effects will be on those already vulnerable, people
depending on climate-sensitive/dependent livelihoods such as agriculture and
tourism. These are the disadvantaged poor and marginalized groups especially
women and youth who neither yield political nor economic power to cope with a
changing climate. Let us now see how climate variability impacts on the fishery
and aquaculture sub sector could affect a typical food system in for instance
the rural Kano Plains of Western Kenya. The region traditionally depends to a
large extent on fishing as an economic activity to make a living. The
illustration is only hypothetical as climate change effects are very specific
to the local context.
A decade ago, Mr. Ouma
Ogendo was an accountant with a multinational company in Kisumu who quit his
prestigious job to establish a fish hatchery venture in a greenhouse in his
rural home area. Until last year, his business was very successful entailing
rearing catfish fingerlings, then selling them to fishermen who used them as
bait to catch Nile perch in the nearby Lake Victoria. Using a modern method of
breeding the fingerlings – such as the re-circulation aquaculture system –
which involves rearing fish in vessels under controlled and automated systems
for maximum and quick yields, he controlled all factors such as predators,
pollution and temperature. However, this year was particularly bad for him as
the invasion of the menacing water hyacinth led to a steep decline in fishing
in the lake. This meant that demand for the fingerlings also dropped forcing
him to close shop and seek alternative ways of making a living. In addition,
extreme precipitation during this year’s rainy season led to the nearby River
Nyando bursting its banks and overflowing built dykes resulting to flooding
which damaged his greenhouse, effectively shattering his dream of running his
own aquaculture business. These unanticipated climate variability events have
significant impacts on the local food system.
Since all the
fingerlings Ogendo had remaining for sale got damaged coupled with the problems
of water hyacinth and floods damaging roads leading to the local market, the availability of fish for food decreases
due to trouble with food processing (storage) and distribution. As a
consequence of the fore goings, local market prices for fish and other food
items goes up significantly, forcing households to buy other cheaper products
such as cassava, sweet potatoes, and indigenous vegetables such as gynadropsis
and black nightshade. As such, access
to highly nutritious food is limited and Ogendo eventually decides to abandon
aquaculture altogether to grow such crops which work better with local
conditions. His decision (and similar others like him in the area) ultimately
affects local food production. The diet of local poor farmers’ families becomes
unbalanced due to lower quality cheap food products as the only affordable source
of protein and micro nutrients affecting food consumption. This in turn
predisposes families to malaria and diarrhoea, both of which are favoured by
high temperatures in the area. The illnesses if contracted will further reduce
their bodies’ ability to absorb nutrients from the available cheap food – utilization.
Thus, the stability of an entire community’s food
system is affected by climate variability with direct implications on
production, processing, distribution and consumption. Indirect effects are felt
as well in the form of changes in markets, food prices and supply chain
infrastructure. Additionally, some people are forced to completely change their
economic activities to ones whose income generation is stable and more
reliable.
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