Climate change affects women most, policy guidelines sought
Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA).
Presenting the findings to members of at least two Parliamentary committees yesterday in the capital, Dr Josephat Saria, a coordinator with the Tanzania Environment Policy Action Node, said more efforts are needed to address the matter in the light of the findings.
Committees which attended in the seminar were those of agriculture, livestock and water and land, natural resources and Environment.
Conducted in four districts in the Southern Highlands Songea , Kilolo , Mbarali, Mbeya rural and Sumbawanga, the research was done by the Open University of Tanzania (OUT) in collaboration with several other organisations and was financed by Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA).
“When there is food shortage, women are the most affected because they are responsible to care for their children,” he said.
As such, he advised on the need for relevant policies to guide small holder farmers arguing that the current policies only address general issues on environment and climate change and give less attention to small holder agriculture.
“Climate change has become a critical challenge likely to undermine global and country efforts to achieve sustainable development,” he warned.
Senior Policy Fellow and Tanzania Policy Hub Coordinator of Research on Poverty Alleviation (Repoa) Godfrey Bwana, explained that Tanzania Environment Policy Action Node is implemented by different organisations with key focus on five components which are seeds, environment and climate change, marketing, soil health and land and copyrights.
He said the market Node has done a research on post harvest loss in various regions and will soon present its findings to stakeholders including Members of Parliament. Bwana also said they are collaborating with the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security and Sokoine University of Agriculture on how to improve seed quality in the country.
“Despite sharing little responsibility for global warming, small holder farmers in developing countries are the most vulnerable group to climate change and disproportionately suffer from its effects,” he said.
“Therefore, we need to focus on how to help them deal with climate change and that must be our priority agenda,” he urged.
He said the Node recommends the government through Ministry of Agriculture Food Security and Cooperative develop a conceptual framework to guide the nation in addressing the impacts of climate change specifically its impact on small holder farmers.
He said the government should introduce indigenous coping strategies which he said currently, are not well disseminated or documented in any policy action plan.
“Policy makers need to encourage and facilitate this exchange of information, bringing it to those who need it most and who can contribute to the greater pool of knowledge,” he urged.
He advocated for development of a climate change policy and legislation in Tanzania which will promote establishment of an institutional framework for mainstreaming climate change matters in sectorial plans and programmes.
Some Members of Parliament suggested for increased budget on research which would enable improve agriculture and other sectors of the economy.
“At the moment, the government spends only 0.02 per cent of the budget on research which is too small compared to other sectors,” Chairman of Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture, Livestock and Water Prof Peter Msola said.
“Research plays a crucial role in our development, we need the government to increase its budget to meet the recommended 1 per cent instead of the current 0.02 percent,” he urged.
He said if the government does not increase the budget, Tanzania will continue to rely on research findings done by foreigners which are not necessarily healthy for the nation’s development.
He took the time to thank the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) for supporting the research and urged other organisations to emulate.
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