Climate-Smart Agriculture for Drought-Stricken Madagascar

As a result of farmers embracing Climate Smart Agriculture, some fields are still green and alive even as drought rages in the south of Madagascar. Credit: Miriam Gathigah/IPSBy Miriam GathigahAMBOASARY, Madagascar, Aug 4 2016 (IPS)Mirantsoa Faniry Rakotomalala is different from most farmers in the Greater South of Madagascar, who are devastated after losing an estimated 80 percent of their crops during the recent May/June harvesting season to the ongoing drought here, said to be the most severe in 35 years.She lives in Tsarampioke village in Berenty, Amboasary district in the Anosy region, which is one of the three most affected regions, the other two being Androy and Atsimo Andrefana.FAO estimates that a quarter of the population - five million people - live in high risk disaster areas exposed to natural hazards and shocks such as droughts, floods and locust invasion. “Most farms are dry, but ours has remained green and alive because we dug boreholes which are providing us with water to irrigate,” she told IPS.Timely interventions have changed her story from that of despair to expectation as she continues harvesting a variety of crops that she is currently growing at her father’s farms.Some of her sweet potatoes are already on the market.Rakotomalala was approached by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) as one of the most vulnerable people in highly affected districts in the South where at least 80 percent of the villagers are farmers. They were then tak...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - Category: Global & Universal Authors: Tags: Advancing Deserts Africa Aid Climate Change Cooperatives Development & Aid Economy & Trade Education Environment Featured Food & Agriculture Headlines Health Humanitarian Emergencies Labour Natural Resources Population Po Source Type: news