News | Climate Change

http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/news/Climate+change+threatens+EAs+staple+food+crop/-/2558/1129562/-/item/1/-/exmlht/-/index.html

“As we seek our independence on the governance side, we should also pursue the independence of our stomachs and begin to focus on our traditional foods,” she adds.

On his part, Dr Lobell proposes strategies that would ensure that maize production continues with good yields.
“One is certainly seed improvement, and in particular developing more heat and drought-tolerant varieties. Note that heat and drought are related but not identical, and breeding efforts should consider both,” he says.
Dr Lobell says that the region also needs to adopt improved agronomy practices, which include water harvesting, improved soil management, and irrigation.
“It is also important to accelerate adaptation strategies such as better insurance for farmers and better safety nets for both farmers and consumers,” he says.
All these proposals are crucial for the region if it is do deal with the crisis that the scientists say provides a clearer picture of the outlook for maize production.
This is because they went against tradition in using data as a basis for the research.
Usually, crop-simulation models or statistical analyses of harvest data are used to predict future weather trends.
Dr Lobell says that the strength of this approach is its use of actual field data from the region, and from different points over many years.
He adds that it thus has lesser uncertainties since it is data based and has lesser assumptions than is usually the case with models.
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