A new study conducted in Gulu, Kotido and Bundibugyo has reported that there is a significant rise in temperature, which could affect crop production.
The research by Africa Climate Change Resilience Alliance said the increase in average temperatures is causing alterations in the duration and onset of rainfall among other conditions. It says the mean annual temperature is projected to increase by 1.0 to 3.1 by the 2060s. It adds that the projection indicates that more days and nights would become warmer.
Margaret Barihaihi, the national program coordinator at Africa Climate Change Resilience Alliance explained that Bundibugyo was picked to represent high and lowlands, Kotido for a semi arid region while Gulu represented the woodlands.
She said there is need to develop interventions to support the local communities that rely on rain-fed agricultural production to mitigate the changes in climate occasioned by the rise in temperatures.
The findings has sent a scare among agriculturalist who says that the increase in temperature will affect crop production especially cereals.
Jackson Lakor, the Gulu district Agricultural officer explained that increase in temperature means there would be little water for the cereal crops to develop thereby affecting harvest. He said the increase in temperature reduces water content in the atmosphere that is essential to crops.
He added that increase in temperature reduces soil fertility because it raises the soil temperature, which affects micro organisms responsible for making humus that guarantees the fertility of the soil.
Lakor further said the increasing temperature would also make it difficult to forecast weather because the dry wind frustrates the formation of rain.
//Cue in: “When there is increase…”
Cue out: “…what we call humus.”//
Already, farmers are beginning to face the wrath of the changing climate as the onsets of rainy seasons have become unpredictable.
Francis Adeka is one of the farmers with unpleasant experience of failed harvests due to altered onset of rainy season. Adeka explains that he got a poor beans harvest because he mistimed the onset of the rains leaving his crops to die.
//Cue in: “The rain came a little bit earlier…”
Cue out: “…say unfortunate rain.”//
The rise in temperature, one of the conditions of climate change is among the key topics under discussion at the international climate conference in Durban, South Africa.
According to the World Meteorological Organization, the global temperatures in 2011 are currently the tenth highest on record and are higher than any previous year with a La Niña event, which has a relative cooling influence. The report adds that the 13 warmest years have all occurred in the 15 years since 1997.
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