COP29 must aid, transform smallholder farmers

The number of people breaking their backs in small farms in rural Africa for meagre yield is huge. These farmers with barely 2 acres each, however, produce up to 80 per cent of the continent’s food, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). This is despite limited access to resources, capital, and decision-making platforms.

Such small farms produce food for domestic consumption, and for the local market where families get money to take their children to school, among other expenses.

The story of Africa’s smallholder farmers lies in the lands they till with little or no sophistication, the local economies whose markets they supply, and the millions of jobs created along the chain. A 2023 FAO report shows that about 80 per cent of farms in Sub-Saharan Africa are smallholdings. This is not proportionate to the fraction of the land they occupy in their countries.

The smallholder farmers produce the food Africa depends on but are increasingly at the mercy of climate conditions that reduce crop yield. This, while they still practice crop rotation, and inter-cropping, uses organic fertilisers and indigenous knowledge to sustain soil health and biodiversity. Our mother’s land in the village, for instance, harbours indigenous vegetables, maize, beans and sorghum, with little room for livestock. This way they ensure food diversity and resilience in rural areas. But it is not enough.

According to the State of Food Security and Nutrition 2023 data, food insecurity affects more than 43.4 million people in East Africa alone. They include the smallholder farmers, the proactive victims who must be helped to adapt to climate challenges by employing nature-friendly agricultural techniques.

As the world goes to Azerbaijan for COP29 climate talks, where Africa’s priority is adaptation, the voices of these smallholder farmers must be louder, albeit through the African Group of Negotiators (AGN), this time led by Kenyan Ali D Mohammed.

Africa is blessed with massive arable land, labour and consumers and must be substantially funded to ensure food security. Baliraine Hakim, the chairperson of the Eastern and Southern Africa Small-scale Farmers’ Forum says only 19 per cent of global public climate finance is allocated to agriculture, forestry, and fisheries sectors. Very little, he says, goes towards small-scale sustainable practices.

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At the Baku COP29, AGN should champion the creation of finance mechanisms tailored for smallholder farmers, and advocate “green climate grants” accessible by co-operatives and local farmer organisations, as an option besides bureaucracies at national levels.

Since women form a large percentage of smallholder farmers, they are at the centre of food production and household resilience. Securing access to climate finance and agricultural support at COP29, therefore, supports both food security and gender equity.

Smallholder farmers’ perspectives and knowledge are crucial in global climate solutions. They control natural resources around them and are therefore promoting mitigation to the climate crisis and reduction of Greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions. In countries where the interference by foreign nations has not affected the governance of seeds, the farmers have preserved indigenous crop varieties, most which do not require chemical inputs when planted, in line with the IPCC’s calls for shift to diverse but more sustainable food systems. This will partly tackle the perennial calls for climate justice, as farmers, who contribute little to GHG emissions will have reduced risks of climate shocks, major losses and damage, and deal with the interconnected food security, poverty, and climate resilience challenges.

AGN must aggressively push for dedicated climate finance that directly benefits smallholder farmers. COP29 must help transform smallholder farmers into climate adaptation leaders.

The writer champions climate justice. [email protected]