Although
preventing or mitigating drought impacts could be cheaper than providing
drought relief, this does not necessarily translate into action through
planning, budget allocations and changes in the institutions' behavior, says
the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), reports NaijaAgroNet.
In
the latest United Nations (UN) Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) report available to NaijaAgroNet,
experts at FAO outlined how to survive drought.
As
said by them, providing emergency food assistance, access to water, fodder, and
creating jobs are the most common approaches adopted by most governments when
supporting drought-stricken populations.
They
noted that while these are essential to saving lives and alleviate hunger, these
also have several limitations as the above approaches do not help vulnerable
populations become more resilient to future shocks.
NaijaAgroNet gathered that many
countries do not have a structure dedicated to drought and drought action plans,
stressing that coordination at the highest levels of governments when planning
for droughts also need reinforcing.
“Current
agricultural policies are rendering land more degraded and impoverished, and
need to be re-examined to mitigate the impacts of drought,” they posited.
NaijaAgroNet noted that the report had
argued that developing and implementing national drought management policies should
be consistent with the country's development objectives as well as establishing
early warning systems are essential.
It
recommends disseminating technologies to combat drought, and support policies
and incentives to use land and water resources rationally.
Growing
drought-tolerant, fast maturing and watershed crops, and encouraging advanced
methods of irrigation (including drip and spray irrigation) are some of the
measures that should be adopted at larger scale to combat climate change.
Setting
parcels of land apart to grow trees or small trees in agricultural fields and
pastures to ensure their growth is a practice that can generate multiple-use
trees to mitigate impacts of droughts.
Traditional livestock
herding practices including keeping stocking rates low and moving herds when
forage is low, capable of reducing risk of overgrazing and land degradation.
Isaac Oyimah/GEE
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