Hon. Frank K Tumwebaze, the Minister of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries during a high level event on climate finance for agriculture and food security dubbed Implementation of Nairobi declaration and outcomes of the UNFCCC Cop 28 outcomes on Climate Finance ans Green growth in Africa at Skylight Hotel in Addis Ababa said Climate change has been an impediment to Africa’s economic growth and development and hence the
challenges of food, feed and nutrition security.
The impact of climate change and its effects on household food and nutrition security include decreased farm yields, lower animal growth rates and productivity in pastoral systems, changes in pest and disease outbreak patterns, as demonstrated by the recent Desert locust and the fall army worm outbreaks and other livestock diseases.
The Sixth Assessment Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) highlights the pressing
need for immediate action to mitigate the effects of climate change on agrifood systems and eradicate
hunger, now more than ever. Despite Africa’s low contribution to the global total greenhouse gas (GHG)
emissions, it remains a highly vulnerable continent to the impacts of climate change. This is particularly true
for agriculture and food security
Although Africa is the continent that is perhaps contributing the least to climate change, African farmers face the most impacts of Climate Change.
Major population movements due to climatic related hazards and associated hunger, food insecurity and
malnutrition are increasingly becoming a common phenomenon. These types of population displacements
require different approaches including reliable early warning systems.
He added that in the face of increasing climate-related risks, African
countries must urgently scale up adaptation and resilience measures with mitigation as a co-benefit and contributing to the implementation of the Paris Agreement on commitments to reduce emissions and work together to adapt to the impacts of climate change.
5.0 As Government of Uganda, in order to mitigate the effects of climate change and enhance production and
productivity for food, animal feed and nutrition security, we have prioritized the underlisted interventions aligned to the National Development Plan
III, the Parish Development Model, Agriculture Value-
Chain Development Strategy and the overall agroindustrialization agenda; which will also influence our
decisions on sourcing and prioritization of resources
i)
Promotion of research, development, certification, multiplication and distribution of seed, stocking and planting materials that are resilient to climate change;
ii) Adoption of appropriate mechanization and irrigation technologies to promote production and
productivity (horizontal and vertical expansion).
Through this, we are moving to provide alternative livelihoods to communities that previously produced in wetland eco-systems by setting up water reservoirs to support activities outside
wetlands;
iii) Pests, vector and disease control to
mitigate/eliminate losses occasioned by seasonal outbreaks as a result of climate change.
iv) Farmer mobilization and education to promote climate-smart agricultural practices while at the same time enhancing production and productivity.
He called on AU member Countries, development partners and friends to align all support and solutions (technical and financial) towards enhancing climate resilience, mitigation and income security through increased production and productivity especially the most vulnerable small-holder farmers in their efforts to transform from subsistence to
commercial farming and all aspects of food systems transformation.
