Resilient and sustainable farming is our Concern

Flooding, drought, heatwaves - extreme weather has a major impact on communities across the world, from housing to health. But for those who depend on agriculture for their income, a weather event can destroy their livelihoods as well.

In Ireland, we have seen this as rising temperatures and drought delay harvests and shrivel crops, and with floods that wash away crops as the hardened ground fails to absorb the rain. We have also seen the global fuel crisis, driven by conflict blocking trade and transport routes, causing farmers’ costs to skyrocket as they try to power their farms and vehicles. 

But while facing the climate crisis becomes a more urgent matter in Ireland, these impacts have already been hammering the world’s most vulnerable countries. Across Africa and South Asia, communities continue to face prolonged drought, devastating floods and cyclones, and deadly heatwaves, which are being exacerbated by climate change. This impact is even harsher due to the dependency on agriculture - for example, around 60% of the African workforce relies on agriculture for their livelihoods, meaning extreme weather threatens not only their food, but their means of supporting their families.

But these farmers are building resilience in the face of adversity. With support from organisations like Concern and ODA programmes like Irish Aid, farmers across the world's most vulnerable countries are using climate smart agriculture techniques to diversify their diets, withstand shocks, and recover quickly from floods and droughts. With farmers from Ireland and all over the globe at risk of the damage extreme weather can cause, we can share our experiences and our advancements to create a more resilient future. 

Ahead of the annual National Ploughing Championships, Concern Worldwide interviewed farmers across Ireland to learn about the reality of farming today.

They will be featured in the 'Faces from the Farm' exhibition at The Ploughing Championships alongside Samuel Payegar, Ayanle Moussa Ahmed, Maryna Yemets, Hinda Abdullahi, Abdi Ade Kiyo and Barkat Ali (all shown above). 

Attendees are asked to match a quote to the photo of each farmer in a challenge. This initiative aims to challenge the preconceptions of what it is to be a farmer today in Ireland and around the world, to show the shared humanity and difficulties facing farmers working in very different contexts across the world. 

While we're all experiencing the impacts of climate change and rising costs, countries that are already vulnerable due to conflict and high rates of hunger and poverty are feeling the effects more severely. This is why sustainable agriculture is a key pillar for  Concern in many of our programme countries.

With support from Irish Aid and other partners, we are implementing solutions that can support farmers to build a more resilient and sustainable way of farming.

Climate smart agriculture is a new name for something that has actually been around for a long time, but is making a huge difference to farmers across the countries most vulnerable to climate change. It’s a set of farming methods and techniques designed to increase the resilience and productivity of land affected by the impacts of climate change. It’s not a solution to climate change - but it is a solution and a tactic to fight problems caused by extreme weather.

CSA techniques include:

• Conservation agriculture: a soil management practice based on crop rotation, minimal tillage, and mulching, to preserve soil fertility
• Improved crop variety and diversification, to improve a family’s diet and withstand climate shocks with resilient crops, such as planting short-cycle crops to avoid harvests being washed away between planting and harvest and to mature early to avoid droughts
• Soil and water management to collect, divert, or slow down the flow of water during seasonal rainfalls and reduce soil erosion
• Irrigation: by providing solar-powered pumps, tread pumps, or innovative solutions like plastic-lined basins to catch rainwater, farmers can grow successfully in the off-season and also have to work less to irrigate their crops
• Agroforestry: planting shrubs and trees on farms that can improve soil fertility, produce firewood, and grow new crops
• Post-harvest management: improving harvesting techniques and the storage, handling, transportation, processing, and packaging of  crops to reduce losses and spoilage at each step of the supply chain, to ultimately improve food security

By training in climate smart techniques, farmers are better equipped to handle the current and future effects of climate shocks, and to build better food and livelihood security for themselves and their families. 

*The contents of this page are the responsibility of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Irish Aid.