AFRICA AGRICULTURE STATUS REPORT 2016

Open data combined with agricultural knowledge, remote
sensing, and mapping can support advice and early warnings
for farmers (World Bank, 2013). This can be critical
to protecting crops from pests and extreme weather, increasing
yields, monitoring water supplies, and anticipating
changes brought on by climate change. For example,
across Uganda’s banana plantations, a devastating infection
has been attacking the fruit, killing off entire crops and
threatening food security. There are prevention methods
to keep banana bacterial wilt at bay, but the government
faced a challenge: how to pinpoint the most vulnerable regions
of the country and get prevention and treatment information
into the hands of growers. A team from the World
Bank found an answer in open data built and spread by
ICTs. The project tapped into a system called Ureport—a
network of 190,000+ volunteers across Uganda who use
mobile technology to report on various issues of interest to
UNICEF. Within days, the team was able to leverage Ureport
to raise awareness, visualize the spread of the bacteria,
and disseminate symptom descriptions and treatment
options. More than 52,000 U-reporters either provided information
about banana bacterial wilt, requested information,
or both via SMS (World Bank, 2013).
The delivery approaches and methods of communicating
weather and climate information are also important. With
an estimated 69 percent SSA penetration rate in 2014,
(ITU, 2014), the mobile phone plays a critical role in the
dissemination of weather and climate information. Extension
workers and radio programs can also play a key role
in assisting farmers understand the weather and climate
information.
Recognizing, modernizing and up scaling indigenous
coping strategies and technologies
Knowledge of how vulnerable people respond to threats
and shocks is essential. External interventions can then be
built on these coping strategies. Natural hazards are not
new and people have been living in hazard-prone areas for
centuries. They have, inevitably, devised their own methods
for protecting their livelihoods. These methods are
based on their own skills and resources, as well as their
experiences. People in hazard-prone areas have acquired
considerable knowledge and technical expertise for managing
risk, and their knowledge systems, skills and technologies
are usually referred to as “indigenous knowledge”.
According to Stigter et al. (2005), indigenous knowledge
is wide-ranging, and includes technical expertise in seed
selection and house building, knowing where to find certain
wild foods, economic knowledge of where to buy or sell essential
items or find paid work, and knowledge of whom to
call upon for assistance. Indigenous knowledge is affected
by changes in the economy and society at large, and is
often undermined by these changes. Climate change also
creates a challenge for indigenous knowledge, which is
built over long periods of time that may be very different
from what communities will face in the future under the effects
of climate change. Indigenous knowledge and coping
strategies are often overlooked and undervalued by governments,
the private sector, civil society and international/
donor agencies. Coping strategies are diverse, comprising
economic, technological, social and cultural elements.
Looking objectively at all forms of knowledge—indigenous
and external—is important for identifying the most suitable
approaches for each situation.
Securing Tenure of land, forestry and fisheries
Insecure tenure is a critical factor in the vulnerability of
small-scale farmers and can serve as a disincentive for
making long-term investments to improve land productivity
and maintain ecosystem services and off-farm resources.
Where land tenure is insecure or unclear or where the state
claims all legal title, agricultural development tends to favor
large-scale production. This can increase the risk of
land acquisitions that are executed without due attention to
internationally accepted procedures (Voluntary Guidelines
on the Responsible Governance of Tenure ), with indirect
impacts on family farmers and rural populations. One risk is
that these types of practices can lead to the loss of land for
food production. For example, the rapid expansion of biofuel
production is expected to contribute to an increase of up
to three million in the number of undernourished pre-school
children in Africa and South Asia by 2025 (Mohamed-Katerere
& Smith, 2013). Commercialization of agriculture
can also have an impact on family farms by driving a move
towards the privatization and individualization of rights to
land. This can result in an increase in cash income, but a
decline in food for subsistence at the household level and
hence increased market vulnerability and food insecurity
(UNECA, 2004).
Many issues in land and natural resources tenure result in
conflict. Clarifying and securing land tenure helps clarify the
rules of resource use and management and it can strength
the role of custodians in decision-making processes, negotiation
and mediation (Davies et al, 2016). Securing land
tenure creates opportunities to resolve disputes peacefully,
both through local mechanisms of dispute resolution and
through better access to formal law.
The land and tenure reforms that have been implemented
in most countries have largely remained inadequate and
have not resulted in more secure tenure, especially for the
small-scale rural farmers.
94 AFRICA AGRICULTURE STATUS REPORT 2016