‘TRADITIONAL CROPS CAN MITIGATE EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE’

By Lumbiwe Mwanza

CLIMATE change is among the greatest threats to agricultural systems but growing more of traditional crops has great potential to mitigate effects of climate change, says The Zambia Alliance for Agro ecology and Biodiversity (ZAAB).

ZAAB National Coordinator Mutinta Nketani told The Scoop that it was worth noting that farmers had become more aware of the benefits of producing food in sustainable ways but that the systems that are being propagated such as the use of chemicals at national level were a hindrance.

Ms. Nketani noted that through the ‘My Food is African’ campaign being promoted by the alliance, it has been observed that many citizens preferred consuming traditional foods that were grown in a sustainable manner but had no platform to voice out.

She said that traditional foods were an automatic strategy for farmers to build climate change resilience in food production and also help with reducing greenhouse gas emissions as they did not need to clear large portions to grow crops.

“It is clear that Zambians want to connect with the traditional foods which are more resilient and that people need a platform to voice out on how to grow and prepare traditional foods amidst climate change effects and guarantee food security,” Ms. Nketani said.

She said that growing of traditional crops could mitigate against climate through conservation farming which retained biodiversity thereby helping to regenerate the environment.

She explained that agriculture was one of the largest sectors that sustained the maximum number of people and contributes to climate change therefore, a climate-smart approach to sustainable food production was needed.

She emphasized that traditional agriculture was getting increased attention worldwide in the context of sustainable food production in a changing climate.

She said that traditional practices like agroforestry, intercropping, crop rotation, cover cropping, traditional organic composting and integrated crop-animal farming had potentials for enhancing crop productivity and mitigating climate change, hence the need to effectively promote such practices.