CHANGING CLIMATE IN AFRICA
Changing climate is an everyday trouble since man wholly depends on the climatic conditions of the environment. What is weather?
WEATHER
Weather is the day to day environmental conditions of an area. This explains how sunny (sunshine) the day is, how humid (rainfall) as well as how breezy (wind) it is.
It is often said that the day can be described by its weather. For instance, you can often hear friends discussing as it relates to the weather of the day.
Today was really rainy, windy or sunny. It is important to note that weather of the day varies depending on the time of the day.
For instance, it can be raining in the morning and sunny in the afternoon.
CLIMATE
Climate on the other hand is the average weather condition of a geographical region recorded over at least 30 years. This places a region under similar climatic conditions.
The climate of a region determines the food, job description, lifestyle, housing pattern, occupation etc.
For instance, a riverine area will predominantly have fishermen around and mainly fishing activities taking place in such area whereas an area with large expanse of forests will predominantly have hunters of different caliber living there.
It is presumed that climate does not vary but remains virtually the same except in terms of irregularities. These irregularities can be referred to climate change.
CHANGING CLIMATE
Changing climate is the deviation that occurs in the predominant climatic conditions of a region observed over a period of time.
Thus, climate change can result to increase or decrease in environmental temperature and general relative humidity.
NEGATIVE IMPACTS OF CHANGING CLIMATE
Onu, Oselebe, Catherine, Andrew et al., (2016) reported that over the past century, global average surface temperature has increased approximately by 0.6OC and this has actually affected both plants and animals adversely. This is an evidence that there is changing climate. Most recently, research evidence by United Nations (2019) showed that changing climate has resulted to the following negative impacts on agricultural production in African Nations;
- High temperature leading to poor survival of crops and animals
- Heavy rainfall leading to flooding which results to loss of lives and property
- Heavy rainfall leading to erosion that washes away the soil and its nutrients as well as micro-organisms.
- loss of soil biodiversity, increase in soil compaction, reduction in agricultural productivity, decline in farm income, increase in poverty, food insecurity and social disorder (onu, 2013)
MITIGATIONS OF NEGATIVE IMPACT OF CHANGING CLIMATE
There is need to mitigate the negative impacts of climate change through the following methods;
- Incorporation of other livelihood options
- Use of improved technologies in agricultural production
- Use of irrigation
- Adoption of drought resistant varieties
- Afforestation
- Mulching
- Early planting
- Application of manures and fertilizers at recommended quantities
