To Fight Climate Change: Farmers Urged To Practice Sustainable Agriculture, Agro-forestry

Small Scale Farmers, mostly comprise of women have been called to practice more of sustainable agriculture and agro-forestry in a bid to lessen the ever-persisting and growing effects of climate change. By Annie Babelle Odounlami

This was during the 2023 counter COP workshop organised by Green Development Advocates, GDA, and Centre for Agriculture and Ecological Promotion, CAEP, with the aim to mobilise communities impacted by the climate crisis to denounce the impacts they face and the false solutions drafted by decision-makers.

Talking to participants coming from Mgana, Batchenga, Ntui, Tombel, Campo, Kribi and Bindandjengue, Emmanuel Eku, Executive Director of the Centre for Agro Ecological Promotion CAEP, encourage them to practice mixed farming and promote the use o organic fertilisers.

Addressing participants, Emmanuel Eku, stated that, agro-forestry will be hugely beneficial for the farmers should they include fruit trees in their respective farms, no matter the farm’s size.

Going by his words, agro-forestry helps add value to locally farm produce, should farmers adjust their agricultural calendars according to the changing seasons. Also, recycling, planting of timber and non-timber products should b taken into account.

Following working sessions and experience sharing, the women farmers share the various resilient methods they established in order to proceed with their respective activities amidst the devastating effects of the climate crisis. As a result, they use a solution of limestone and salt as herbicide, titonia diversifolia as fertiliser, pesticide and fungicide and ashes as fungicide, pesticide, insecticide amongst others.

Therefore, geared towards combating extreme weather conditions affecting crops and farm products, health complication arising from the consumption of crops containing excess chemical fertilisers, droughts and other climate crisis issues, the women suggested a complete stop of chemical fertilisers on farmlands and promote the use of organic fertilisers.

They sough for more training on agriculture and animal husbandry, sensitisation of the population on and communities on the ongoing climate crisis, fight deforestation by practicing afforestation and re-afforestation, adapting to changes in seasons by adopting new agricultural calendars, carry out mixed farming.

Enumerating the difficulties they face, participants at the workshop mentioned that, before the coming of agro-industries, they ha good and fertile soils that encouraged farming activities and the output was good as well. Also, fishing has been gravely hampered due to the construction of the Natchigal hydro-electric dam, as fishes are rare due to the absence of water.

It should be noted that, the population of Ntui (Natchigal) live in serious dryness a the drones used by these agro-industries prevent rain from falling, thereby causing a decline in farming output of the farmers of this locality.

According to them, the excess and improper use of fertilisers on farmlands, bush fallowing, improper disposal of refuse, intense farming on the same piece of land for several years and the implementation of heavy-duty industries in their localities greatly go a long way to causing climate change.

Over the last few years Africa Climate Justice Collective, ACJC, has created headlines by the thrust it had taken to amplify the voices of the African people who are engaged in struggles against the effects of climate change and the related cancers of capitalism and its twin forces of racism and patriarchy.

It has been bold in demanding systematic change to the order of the day through the innovative African Peoples Counter COP (APCC) as one of the ways to promote climate justice not only in Africa but also globally.