We’ve been hearing about food crises in countries like Ethiopia since the 1980s – why is it still happening? That’s the perfect question to be asking right now, especially in light of the Australian Government releasing the details of its carbon tax over the weekend.
What does the carbon tax in Australia have to do with food shortages in Africa, you ask?
The key reason why countries in the Horn of Africa – Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia – are experiencing more frequent and severe food shortages is climate change. If you look at it historically, the major rains in the Horn of Africa used to fail every decade, or so. But the climate is changing and those rains are failing more and more often now. What used to be a 10-year cycle of drought, more or less, is now every other year.
In the past, when the rains failed less frequently, natural resilience carried people through to the next harvest. The resilience was in terms of cattle – in good years people could fatten their cattle, in bad years they could eat the cattle. The land itself was resilient – it absorbed water over time, the aquifers (underground storehouses of water) had time to recharge. It’s funny to think of it this way, but the human body fat also provided protection – people themselves put on weight in those years and were able to get through leaner times.
Now that the rains are failing much more often, there’s simply not enough time to rebuild the cattle stocks, the aquifers, the quality of the land, even people’s body fat. This means that the old coping mechanisms are weaker, and there’s no longer the resilience to take people through to the next harvest because the harvests don’t come often enough. There are population pressures too, but I think what’s really at the root of this is climate change.
Food shortages in Ethiopia first came to our attention in the mid-1980s, thanks to the work of Bob Geldof and other celebrities who drew attention to the issue. Since then, there have been smart investments in food security – grain storage, irrigation, even roads. What you see when you travel in Ethiopia now is great roads. The good thing about those roads is you can move food around. We’ve learned that often food shortages do not affect a whole country, they can be localised. So one of the things helping us now is that food can be moved to where it’s needed, which helps the local economy as well as addressing the food shortage itself.
So that’s good news. We have learned how to manage the problem.
But nothing we do will solve the problem – long term, permanently – if our climate continues to change. Look at the Sahara – the population densities there are very, very low – for a good reason. It is so dry, it can’t sustain many human beings. The only way to avoid this happening to the Horn of Africa, and even beyond, with all the suffering and dislocations that will imply, is for you and I to reduce our carbon emissions. Quickly. Dramatically.
I remember vividly being in a town called Lalibela in northern Ethiopia, and seeing a woman walking by with all of her possessions on her back talking to another villager, tears rolling down her face. We asked if she was ok, what was going on? Through a translator she told us that the harvest had failed, there was nothing she could do, so she had to walk to another place to live. It was incredible – we were seeing a climate change refugee being forced to leave her home to find food.
I’m optimistic that we will manage this latest food crisis because I think we’ve learned some of the lessons of the past. But this will be addressing the symptoms rather than the biggest cause.
For families in parts of Ethiopia, drought is a threat to lives and livelihoods. During times of drought, families who rely on the rains to grow food and earn an income have little choice but to watch their crops shrivel, their animals become unproductive and their children grow weak from hunger.
That is why, in 2010, ChildFund launched an appeal to ease the effects of drought for young people and their families in Siraro, Ethiopia.
Donations from Australians totalling over $160,000 went towards:
- Providing drought-tolerant sheep and goats along with animal husbandry training.
- Supplying “improved vegetable seeds” and training on crop management and modern farming techniques.
- Constructing 30 water cisterns to collect water from the two annual rains.
- Building a double-roomed grain storage bank where farmers can safely store some of their grain harvest for future use so that hunger is not such a dire risk in times of drought.
Almost a year after the launch of the project, the training was complete and the cisterns built. Sheep and goats were fattening up and some had already begun to breed. Soon livestock would be born and sold at the market generating family income.
Most of the new farmers had already harvested one crop and another was on the way. Children, who had previously lived on a meagre diet consisting only of maize, could now enjoy a nutritious and diverse diet with delicious vegetables such as cabbage, tomato, and carrot. Consequently, their health and performance at school improved significantly. Parents who previously had no income could now sell any additional vegetables with each harvest improving household income by up to 1,000 birr.
Things were looking promising for the young farmers when the rains failed and parts of Ethiopia were consumed by drought. The 2011 drought in the Horn of Africa was deemed “the worst drought in 60 years” devastating communities across three countries. Two consecutive rainy seasons failed, leaving subsistence farmers with wilted crops and weak animals. ChildFund provided emergency food and water to affected families, assisting almost 75,000 children, women and men in Ethiopia and Kenya.
Water is clearly one of the most essential resources needed by farmers to produce successful crops and healthy livestock. Fortunately, during the drought, the cisterns were not empty because the farmers involved in the project, aware of the unreliable rainy seasons, had been careful to use their water sparingly. This allowed them to continue caring for their crops whilst also using the water for drinking and to support their livestock.
Sadly, though, some families supported by the project had to sell their breeding stock as a way to cope through the drought. However, 65% of livestock remains with the farmers today and are in good condition.
All in all, the project participants were able to cope during the drought and their children and families did not suffer or require emergency food and water.
- Today participants report that they can now feed their children and provide materials for school and medications.
- Those who did not take part in the project have learnt from their neighbours how to make home gardens and some of them have successfully created their own.
- Participants continue to harvest vegetables for both household consumption and for the market.
- The rains have now come to the project area and it is hoped that young farmers will start saving some of their harvest and the cereal bank will soon be put to use.
- Farming goat and sheep has been found to be a lengthy process as breeding the animals to produce offspring to be sold can take some time. If the drought occurred at a later stage, offspring would have been available to sell during the drought as a coping mechanism, meaning the original stock could have been retained.
Families now face a food secure future as told to our staff by Tesfaye: “The seed support has brought the most changes in my life. I and my family have now become food secure. Of all the support which I received from the project, the provision of a cistern and improved seeds of cabbage, carrot, tomato, salad, false banana and onion were most helpful. Even if the weather is changing, I will get a yield because of the improved seeds.”
