Ministry of Agriculture Principal Secretary Dr Robert Thwala said the sad part would be that they would sell off the meagre physical assets they owned.
He said the farmers would fail to feed their own families and worse still, the ageing farming generation had failed to attract the youth into the sector as farming had become the business of the poor who depended on hand-outs.
"There is an immediate urgency to save our planet and people given the unfolding climate change scenarios and the very serious potential impacts we are already witnessing," he said. This was during a Climate Smart Agriculture meeting hosted by the Food Agricultural Natural Resource Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN) in collaboration with the Coordinating Assembly of Non-Governmental Organisations (CANGO) and the University of Swaziland (Luyengo campus) yesterday.
status
"For Swaziland, climate change is already having adverse effects on our nation's food security status and the livelihoods of our population which is entirely dependent on agriculture, farming and forest products." Thwala said the projected changes in future temperatures and rainfall patterns for 2030 in southern Africa indicated a significant decline in production of major staple crops. He said agriculture contributed significantly to climate change factors and therefore, needed to be part of the solution.
However, the PS said there would be need for the country to be part of the global discussions agenda on agriculture and climate change. Thwala said part of the solution would be the creation of climate-smart agriculture solution programmes to counteract the effects of climate change factors.
The PS said climate smart agriculture was a pathway towards development and food security built on some pillars including increasing productivity and income, enhancing resilience of livelihoods and ecosystems as well as reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the atmosphere.
He said adapting to climate change and climate variability was all about knowledge, innovation and responsive action.
"Knowledge that arms farmers with the information they need to adjust their operations each season, and knowledge as well as innovation that allows them to make appropriate farming choices and investments for the future of our food systems.
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"We also need knowledge and responsive action that allow us to create the appropriate policy frameworks for building and adapting agriculture," he said.
Thwala said there would be need to develop networks and platforms where farmers, policy makers, researchers, the private sector and all relevant stakeholders would be linked together.
The PS said strategic partnerships from the field to the global policy arena must be developed, adding that engagement in the global agenda needed to be an integral part of the discussions.
He said while technological options would be needed, adaptation was critical as it was about getting institutional and policy framework right and this needed to involve a diversity of situations, from insurance to weather advisories to national policy.
SD first to have seed policies in parly
SWAZILAND is the first country under the Food Agricultural Natural Resource Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN) to have its seed policies in parliament.
FANRPAN Chief Executive Officer Lindiwe Sibanda said this was the network's success story, adding though that it was despite the fact that the country was lagging behind others like Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe. She said in as far as implementing Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) initiatives Swaziland was involved in the Harmonisation of Seed Policies in the region.
Sibanda said the country also benefited from a project valued at over E40 million ($4 million) for research, adding that the organisation hailed Her Majesty the Queen Mother's economic projects for Swazi Secrets and the proposed women's bank.
The CEO said FANRPAN worked in Swaziland through the Coordinating Assembly of Non-Governmental Organisations (CANGO) and it represented farmers, the private sector and the ministry of agriculture.
She said FANRPAN would sponsor nine students from Lesotho, Malawi and Swaziland for a climate smart agriculture programme at university level. Sibanda said as climate change was now experienced even in Swaziland, it would be important to plant relevant crops in the respective regions.
Brown Mang
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