Climate change pivotal in sector

THE issue of climate change in the agriculture sector will be having a greater effect on the cash crop economy, according to the AgBook Agribusiness Training and Advisory Ltd.
Company managing director Nicole Isifu said technology and the modernisation of agriculture were becoming increasingly important as the global food demand was expected to increase to between 59 per cent and 98 per cent by 2050.
The company trains small farmers to develop their own business plan and to increase their understanding of the commercial farming environment, including financial business concepts.
Isifu said farmers worldwide needed to increase crop production, either by increasing the amount of land to grow crops, or by enhancing productivity on existing land through better technology.
“The use of fertilisers and irrigation systems and adopting new methods of farming are being suggested,” she said.
“Climate change creates a bigger risk if we don’t further adapt the way we farm, and according to the Inter government Panel on Climate Change (IPCC 2018), climate change models have predict an increase in temperature of 1 to 2 degrees by 2050, potentially causing lower yields in critical commodities.”
Isifu said attempts to modernise agriculture by the large agribusiness were often hampered by land disputes as landowners seek to gain the most benefit from their land without realising the importance of venturing into this concept.
She also explained that the training her consultant is providing “is to better equip our small farmers at home so that we can change the way of venturing into a modern agriculture in assisting our farmers to venture into”.