Food Production to Drop as Climate Changes
Climate change will leave swaths of sub-Saharan Africa including Uganda, unable to produce staple crops such as maize, bananas and beans by the end of the century, according to a report that calls for an urgent transformation of the region’s agriculture.
The study, led by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), says that rising temperatures and droughts will force “significant areas” to find alternative crops, improve irrigation systems or even abandon crop-based agriculture completely by the year 2100.
According to the Climate Change Department, Ministry of Water and Environment, Uganda is one of the countries that are greatly vulnerable to climate change impacts, in respect of climate variability including increasing temperatures, increased frequency and intensity of rainfall, heat waves, droughts, floods and storms. The regions and ecosystems across the country, like the mountain regions, the lowlands and the cattle corridor, differ in their vulnerability and adaptive capacity. In general the sectors most vulnerable to climate change impacts are agriculture, water supply, health, transport, housing and personal safety and security.
Rachel Strohm