The future of farming in Africa: Fighting climate change and conflict | DW News 29 May 2021

Climate change is increasingly posing a challenge to agriculture development in Africa. The destruction caused by floods and the devastation by droughts across the continent demonstrate the threat posed by the unpredictable weather patterns.
This year, Zimbabwe is expecting its biggest harvest of maize in 20 years, a sign that the country could be ending its cycle of food deficits due to successive droughts and a troubled land reform program undertaken in the early 2000's.
Official data shows the country will harvest about 2.7 million metric tons of the staple grain. This would be almost 200 percent higher than last year.
Maize is a staple crop across much of eastern and southern Africa - and it's not just climate change that's causing problems, the Fall Army Worm is too. It's actually the caterpillar of a moth, native to the US. But it hasn't stayed there - the pest is spreading around the world, ruining harvests, like in southern Africa in 2017. But one project in Ghana is helping farmers to fight back against the hungry caterpillars with a smartphone app.
The Global Hunger Index says the western African country of Cameroon experiences moderate levels of hunger - but here conflict is the main reason for food insecurity. Farming has been greatly disrupted in the country’s Far North region where the army is fighting against a Boko Haram insurgency and the West where English speaking separatists are trying to create a breakaway state.


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#Africa #ClimateChange #Agriculture