REPORT – from UN Development Programme
Published on 11 Apr 2017 —
Weather insurance, water harvesting, diverse cash crops, land management, new technologies and community-based approaches enhance Ethiopia’s resilience to climate change
Rain-fed agriculture is becoming risky business for farmers in Ethiopia. Droughts have become more frequent and nowadays Ethiopia contends with one of the most serious climatic shocks in recorded history.
But new efforts are underway to put risk in the backseat for many Ethiopians. A web of innovative support vehicles – such as weather-based index insurance, improved water and land resource management, and the introduction of new tools, techniques and technologies to improve farm production – are slowly breaking the cycle of poverty and empowering vulnerable farmers to adapt to the wild ride a changing climate promises for the future.
“The Government of Ethiopia has recognized its vulnerability and has been working hard to pursue climate resilient development growth,” said Ethiopia’s Deputy Prime Minister Demeke Mekonnen speaking at a high level humanitarian meeting in early 2017.
WEATHER INSURANCE FOR THE PEOPLE
Aysha Feyso is a mother of nine and a smallholder farmer from the Adami Tullu District in Central Ethiopia. In the past, when bad weather like the drought triggered by last year’s Super El Niño happened, Aysha would sell off her livestock to make ends meet. This left her trapped in a non-virtuous cycle, where bad weather meant starting again from zero.
But in October 2015, when the effects of the El Niño lowered the productivity on Aysha’s farm, a pilot weather-based index insurance scheme kicked in. The weather insurance was provided to Aysha and farmers like her through the UNDP-supported Promoting Autonomous Adaptation at the Community Level in Ethiopia Project.
The project supports some 5,000 farmers to build resilience, improve food security and reduce impacts of disasters in the Benishangul Gumuz, Gambella, Oromia and Tigray regions. The five-year project recently came to a close, benefiting from a US$5.6 million grant from the Global Environment Facility’s Least Developed Countries Fund and UNDP, and US$24 million in co-financing from the Government of Ethiopia.
“I thought insurance was only for vehicles and not crops. The Promoting Autonomous Adaptation Project has taught us lessons in saving and planning,” says Aysha.
Insurers need reliable weather data in order to issue policies and set benchmarks for when those policies will kick in. To build more reliable data – and also provide local farmers with valuable climate and weather information they can use to improve crop production, and optimize planting and harvesting times – the project supported the installation of eight Automatic Weather Stations total, two for each region.
Aysha’s insurance policy triggered in late in 2015, when threshold rainfall values were not met. In all, 1,840 smallholder farmers, (1288 male & 552 female) from across the four regions supported by the project received payments. A total of US$115,555 was paid out, with most farmers receiving between US$22 and US$132 each.
With the money, farmers were able to keep their children in school, save money, purchase improved weather-resilient seeds and avoid selling off their assets.
“This reverses the negative cycle of risk. With insurance, improved planting techniques and technologies, and new knowledge on how to adapt, farmers, pastoralists and other rural enterprisers can build a brighter future. It’s about creating proactive – rather than reactive – actions. It’s about building lasting systems that will hold up against the pressures of a changing climate,” says UNDP Regional Technical Advisor Benjamin Larroquette.
DIVERSIFY, DIVERSIFY
Changing the cycle of risk in Ethiopia doesn’t just mean insuring farmers from extreme weather events. Diversified holdings and climate-smart community-based investments in more productive crops, water-harvesting and irrigation technologies, and seeds and livestock will also be key in building resilience across the nation.
With support from the Promoting Autonomous Adaptation Project, Aysha bought chickens and goats to create a new poultry business. She now earns an additional US$175 a year selling eggs alone.
The project has helped other smallholder farmers to diversify their holdings, protect natural resources, and create more sustainable businesses across the board. This way, when one crop or revenue stream fails, the other one can take its place, and farmers like Aysha can reverse the cycle of risk for good.
A new proposal is being developed by the Government of Ethiopia with support from UNDP and GEF to fund the Scaling up Community-Based Adaptation in Ethiopia project. The scaling-up initiative will build on the best practices of the recently closed Promoting Autonomous Adaptation Project, with US$10m in proposed funding from the Global Environment Facility Least Developed Country Fund and US$29 million in co-financing.
Vulnerable women and men are equitably benefiting from these types of interventions, which are strengthening the adaptation capacities of local communities according to State Minister Kare Chawocha of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
Source – ReliefWeb