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Climate crisis: drought in eastern Africa

October 2023

From 2020 to 2023, a prolonged drought in eastern Africa caused the driest conditions seen in decades and widespread food shortages.

We urgently need your help to provide farmers, who rely on rainfall to feed their livestock, grow crops and make a living from agriculture, with farm inputs like drought-tolerant seeds and support to prepare them for future climate extremes.

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"We have not seen a drought of this magnitude since 1981."

Dr Diana Onyango, Head of Technical Team, Farm Africa

 

The most extensive and persistent drought in decades hit the Horn of Africa in October 2020 due to poor rainfall and its impacts are continuing to affect the region.

Farmers and their families have been living on the brink of an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe without sufficient food, water and crops for the last three years.

The deterioration in condition and deaths of many livestock, water shortages and record-low vegetation conditions are just some of the results of this devastating drought, which has led to mass hunger, disease outbreaks, acutely malnourished children, displacement and diverse economic shocks such as rising fuel and fertilizer prices, currency depreciation and inflation.

Current conditions

The region is now finally experiencing wetter conditions, particularly in eastern and northern Kenya and southern Ethiopia, which are critical in reducing food insecurity.

But recovery needs remain very high as these conditions are a result of the El Niño phenomenon which brings with it heavy rains.

While the prospect of increased rainfall offer a reprieve, the above-normal levels present new threats such as flooding and desert locusts.

Where floods pose the risks of displacement of hundreds of thousands of people, damage to properties and crops, limited access to schools and hospitals and water-borne diseases, desert locusts, a threat witnessed in 2019, could affect crop and livestock production.

While help has arrived through humanitarian assistance to mitigate some food shortages, assistance is outpaced by the scale and severity of the situation.

Comprehensive preparation and support are needed to alleviate the complex risks arising from volatile weather events and existing challenges in the region. Proactive measures and response strategies must be in place to help smallholder farmers better cope with the impacts and build more sustainable and secure livelihoods.

Compounding issues

In a region that has already endured flooding in early 2020, a desert locust invasion, the COVID-19 pandemic, protracted conflict in northern Ethiopia and now a rocketing inflation rate, the fluctuating climate conditions pose severe threats to weakened farming communities who call this region home.

Staple food prices remain atypically high, driven by below-average production across the region and rising food and fuel prices on international markets. High food prices are reducing household purchasing power and limiting household food access.

Dr Diana Onyango, Head of Technical Team at Farm Africa, said: “The communities that are facing the worst of these climate extremes are still recovering from severe challenges such as conflict and the pandemic.”

“Once again, we see those who have made the smallest contribution to climate change bear the greatest burden.”

The region is also feeling the impact of the Russia Ukraine conflict through a spike in agricultural commodity prices.

Together, the Russian Federation and Ukraine produce 53 per cent of sunflower oil and seeds, and 27 per cent of wheat traded globally.[i] Countries in eastern Africa are particularly dependent on the import of food security foods: Kenya sources more than 40% of its wheat from the Russian Federation and Ukraine, while in Uganda the figure is more than 50% and in Tanzania it is over 60%.[ii]

Action is needed to avert threats to food security across eastern Africa.

How Farm Africa is helping

In the Borena zone in the Oromia National Regional State of Ethiopia, where the drought dried up pasture and livestock suffered from acute shortages of water and land, Farm Africa and SOS Sahel Ethiopia delivered emergency supplies of animal forage, thanks to funding from the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Ethiopia, in the hope to save livestock.

But we need your help to do more.

Climate-smart agriculture

Climate-smart agriculture

Farm Africa’s experience across eastern Africa shows how Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) can reverse the drop in farming production when a drought occurs by helping farmers to manage their resources in ways that protect ecosystems, reduce agriculture’s contribution to climate change and help to alleviate poverty.

We use CSA approaches in our projects to promote good agricultural practices, crop diversification and the growth of cash crops, which are both profitable and environmentally friendly, to help build resilient, sustainable livelihoods for rural communities for generations to come.

Access to finance

Access to finance

Access to finance is a lifeline for households struggling with weather extremes. Millions of farming families in rural Africa face falling into poverty when their harvests fail, just because they do not have a financial buffer.

Building resilience to climate change must ensure farmers have access to finance so they can afford necessities like food and education, and can invest in the improved seeds and fertilizers needed for a healthy harvest of drought-tolerant crops and a good profit.

Farm Africa helps to provide financial access by establishing community saving schemes such as village savings and loan associations for millions of rural farmers. These schemes offer financial support, particularly for women who provide the bulk of the agricultural labor, and ensure they have stability when dangerous weather events strike.

What you can do to help

A donation from you could help to reduce poverty and hunger for farmers across eastern Africa in the face of the changing climate.

Help build a climate resilient future, so no farmer has to face a drought like this alone.

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[i] https://unctad.org/system/files/official-document/osginf2022d1_en.pdf
[ii] https://unctad.org/system/files/official-document/osginf2022d1_en.pdf