Anthonia Ifeyinwa Achike
Anthonia Ifeyinwa Achike is a Nigerian agricultural economist. She is a professor of Agricultural Economics and head of the Agricultural Economics Department at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
Quotes
[edit]- though people naturally exhibit some adaptive responses to climate variability, different levels of vulnerability to climatic changes still exist.
- while mitigation may be very difficult and expensive, especially for individuals and even governments, concerted policy-based efforts on adaptation are on-going.
- the foregoing presupposes that, in the face of the threats or risks of climate change, the options left are mitigation and adaptation. climate change mitigation refers to actions taken to limit or stop the magnitude and/or rate of long-term climate change.
- therefore, adaptation is important as a necessary complement. mitigation, relative to adaptation, requires a lot of policies, not just simple “precautionary measures by individuals.”
- You are quite correct about the reality of climate change threats in Africa (and the entire world) as well as the relatively low level of awareness of climate change issues by the African society. This apparent ignorance cuts across different facets of the society including private and public sectors, civil societies organizations, professionals, farmers etc.
- It is important to note that the status of farmers are of utmost concern to most scholars when it comes to the issue of climate change in Africa because over 70% of livelihoods of Africans are based on agriculture which depends much on weather and soil conditions. Agriculture, especially crop production in Africa relies much on water availability, a condition that subjects the industry to the vagaries of climate change and the attendant adverse effects.
- According to reports of the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Africans especially Sub-Sahara Africans are more vulnerable to climate change and unfortunately they have the least capability of adapting to its deleterious effects. This has been responsible for crop yield losses, disease outbreaks that affect humans, livestock and crops; loss of fishing grounds and water bodies; extreme weather events such as flood, desertification with the associated consequences of famine, massive death of livestock and communal conflicts that arise from what we now call “environmental migration” as has been recently witnessed in Nigeria between Fulani nomads and crop farmers in the middle belt and some other parts of Nigeria.
- There are many other threats to sustainable livelihood and agricultural development. In spite of the hazards, it is sad to note that many people especially farmers in Nigeria know very little about basic characteristics and adaptation measures for climate change vis-a-vis sustainable agriculture. Despite all these, it is quite doubtful whether farmers and indeed actors in other weather dependent occupations know immediately what constitutes the “symptoms” of climate change and the best responses to climate change when such agricultural practices as it requires are outside their range of experience. These facts, according to Madison (2006) account for a period of transitional losses of unknown duration as a result of adapting to climate change. Such losses are immense when quantified and the best way forward is not to lament about the losses but to put in place actions that will help farmers and other members of the society adapt to climate change effects in Africa.
- IPCC also defined them as follows: Climate variability refers to variations in the mean state and other statistics (such as standard deviations, the occurrence of extremes, etc.) of the climate on all temporal and spatial scales beyond that of individual weather events. Variability may be due to natural internal processes within the climate system (internal variability), or to variations in natural or anthropogenic external forces (external variability). Climate change, on the other hand refers to any change in climate over time, whether due to natural variability or as a result of human activity.
- Though people naturally exhibit some adaptive responses to climate variability, there still exist different levels of vulnerability to climatic changes. The first precautionary measure is a clear understanding of the issues at stake including the underlying threats so that one can appropriately adjust by adapting and/or mitigating when the need arises.
- The foregoing presupposes that in the face of the threats or risks of climate change, the options left are mitigation and adaptation. Climate change mitigation are actions to limit or stop the magnitude and/or rate of long-term climate change (e.g. reductions in human emissions of greenhouse gases); while adaptation may be referred to as anticipating the adverse effects of climate change and taking appropriate action to prevent or minimize the damage they can cause.
- While mitigation may be very difficult and expensive especially for individuals and even government, concerted policy based efforts on adaptation are on-going. Mitigation alone cannot solve the problem as climate change and variabilities have components that are outside the control of human beings. Therefore adaptation is important as a necessary complement. Mitigation relative to adaptation requires a lot of policies not just simple “precautionary measures by individuals” as you said.
- There are however some things individuals can do to contribute to climate change reduction, adaptation and mitigation drive. For instance every individual needs to: educate himself/herself and others more about the climate change risks and the realities of adaptation. There is need for consciousness on the part of individuals to build capacity in adapting to climate change effects irrespective of his/her field in the economy in order to adapt to climate change. Activities that lead to pollution of the environment must be curtailed.
- We can adopt recycling of some products, avoid unnecessary wastages in our daily production and consumption processes. In the farms there are different adaptive technologies which should be used for improved irrigation, water harvesting, improved varieties that will withstand drought and have short growing periods, terracing, reforestation and afforestation, (i.e. planting of trees); water and soil conservation etc.
- The campaign for climate change adaptation should begin in our school system – primary, secondary and tertiary institutions. Appropriate topics on the subject of climate change adaptation should be included in the school curricular. Architects, artisans, pharmacists, inventors, even artists and scholars have various roles to play in raising the awareness of climate change and encouraging creation of innovative tools and strategies for adaptation in their fields.
- Innovative business such as designing solar energy based products, marketing of such products and utilizing inputs that will not give harmful effluents in the environment. We must think green economy and green business. There is much to be done by the individuals but the governments, firms and international agencies also have a lot to do too.
- For consciousness on the part of individuals to build capacity in adapting to climate change effects irrespective of his/her field in the economy in order to adapt to climate change. Activities that lead to pollution of the environment must be curtailed.
- For instance, tailors and textile workers have to design products that will enable the customers adapt to prevailing climate conditions; the engineer have to design tools that will be used in the household, farms and industries to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases as well as make use of renewable energy sources.
- Individuals can take advantage of climate change by engaging in innovative business such as designing solar energy based products, marketing of such products and utilizing inputs that will not give harmful effluents in the environment. We must think green economy and green business. There is much to be done by the individuals but the governments, firms and international agencies also have a lot to do too.
- Well, we must acknowledge that Nigeria, as a country is facing a lot of challenges at the moment which can even distract the government from facing certain programmes already recommended or mounted. Some of these challenges include terrorism (especially recent Boko Haram insurgency) and most recently the Ebola Virus outbreak. Now before these issues came on board, Nigeria has faced the challenges of desertification in the Northern part of the country before the issue of flooding especially that of 2012 which was very impactful.
