Are Drought-Resistant Crops in Africa the Tech Fix They're Cracked Up to Be?
- Sep 23, 2016
- 1 min read
The rains are not what they once were in Kitui County. As climate change bites, the wet season is more erratic and drought has become an all-too-common phenomenon in this rural corner of eastern Kenya.
This year, the community’s produce of peas, sorghum and other staples failed to reach maturity because the rains arrived one month late, says Onesmus Mwangangi, an agricultural expert at the charity Farm Africa. “Farmers in this region have lost more than 80% of their crops due to lack of rain,” he adds.
They are not alone. Much of southern Africa is currently suffering consecutive seasons of drought, prompting the Southern African Development Community to declare a regional disaster and to request $2.7bn in aid. If donors were to follow the recent advice of the UN, a proportion of that funding should be spent on so-called drought-resistant seeds.
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