Sustainable mountain development in East Africa in a changing climate

First page Previous page 27 Next page Last page

Agriculture and food security Agriculture is the backbone of East Africa’s economy, and the most important livelihood strategy for mountain communities is to ensure regional food security. East Africa’s mountainous areas are known for their favourable agricultural conditions due to their fertile volcanic soils, cooler temperatures and more stable rainfall patterns (FAO, 2013; FAO, 2014). As a consequence, the population densities in the mountainous areas of East Africa are much higher than in lowland areas. While Africa has an average population density of 35 people per km², the mountain slopes of Mount Elgon in Uganda have a population density of 900 people per km² (UNEP, 2014). Similarly, the majority of Ethiopia’s population, nearly 90 per cent, live in the Ethiopian Highlands, which has the country’s most productive agricultural land and receives the highest rainfall (Alweny et al., 2014; Josephson et al., 2014). Due to the intense population pressure, farm sizes are small – generally below 2 hectares (FAO, 2013). In Rwanda, 25 per cent of families have less than 0.2 hectares of arable land (UNEP, 2014). As a result of the small size of land holdings, 50 to 60 per cent of the population lives in poverty in East Africa’s mountains (FAO, 2013) and food insecurity is widespread (UNEP, 2014). The pressure on limited land leads to deforestation and, as a consequence, land degradation through soil erosion is a common feature on the fertile mountain land (Alweny et al., 2014). Coupled with other risk factors such as remoteness and poor infrastructure, mountain communities and the agricultural sector are extremely vulnerable to climate change. Although climate change is predicted to lead to wetter conditions, the current trend for East Africa has been towards a warmer and drier climate with less reliable rainfall patterns. Mountain farmers

Ecosystem services

SUDAN

ERITREA

Livestock

Agriculture

SUDAN

DJIBOUTI

ETHIOPIA

SOUTH SUDAN

ETHIOPIA

SOMALIA

Cattle Heads per km 2

UGANDA

DRC

KENYA

RWANDA

400 km

BURUNDI

TANZANIA

250

TANZANIA

Croplands

ZAMBIA

Sources:T.P.Robinsonetal.,2014,Mapping theglobaldistributionof livestock,PLoSONE9(5);V.W.MasonandJ.Treat,2014, “Africa’sFoodChallenge”,NationalGeographicMagazine.

depending on rain-fed agriculture are especially vulnerable to variable rainfall patterns (Bishaw et al., 2013). Such changes have been reported (FAO, 2013) and are blamed for crop failure and famine during recent decades (Alweny et al., 2014). Extreme events such as floods and drought have increased during the past 30 to 60 years (Niang et al., 2014), destroying crops, infrastructure, agricultural land, homes, livelihoods, as well as exacerbating food insecurity and taking many lives (NEMA, 2010a; MoWE, 2013). The communities cultivating and living on mountainous land are especially vulnerable to landslides during heavy rainfall. Landslides are, to a large extent, a result of clearing forests for cultivation and the removal of the soils’ natural protection from erosion. OnMount Elgon, for example, 70 per cent of all landslides in

the twentieth century occurred after 1997 when large areas of forest were cleared. Recent incidents in 2010 and 2012 resulted in 500 deaths, while hundreds of others were displaced (UNEP, 2014). The loss of fertile soil, crops and livestock is putting the population at risk of famine and is further increasing the pressure on limited agricultural land on Mount Elgon (MoWE, 2013).

Made with FlippingBook