By Bisola Adeyemo
World Food Programme (WFP) on Thursday said more than one million people in southern Madagascar are facing famine due to drought caused by climate change
Madagascar, the fourth largest island in the world, has a unique ecosystem which includes animals and plants found nowhere else on the planet. The country experiences a dry season, usually from May to October, and a rainy season that starts in November.
Speaking to UN News on Thursday, Alice Rahmoun, WFP Communications Officer in the capital, Antananariv, said climate change has disrupted the cycle, affecting smallholder farmers and their neighbors.
“There is of course less rain, so when there is the first rain, they can maybe have hope and sow some seeds. But one little rain is not a proper rainy season,” she said.
“So, what we can say is that the impacts of climate change are stronger and stronger… .so harvests fail constantly, so people don’t have anything to harvest and anything to renew their food stocks.”
“In some areas they are still able to plant something, but it’s not easy at all, so they are trying to grow sweet potatoes. But in some other areas, absolutely nothing is growing right now, so people are just surviving only eating locusts, eating fruits and cactus leaves,” said Ms. Rahmoun.
“And, just as an example, cactus leaves are usually for cattle; it is not for human consumption.”
The situation is even direr because, she added, “even the cactus is dying from the drought, from the lack of rain and the lack of water, so it’s worrying”.
The plight of families is also deeply troubling. “People have already started to develop coping mechanisms to survive,” she said.
WFP is collaborating with humanitarian partners, and the Malagasy Government, to provide two types of response to the crisis. Some 700,000 people are receiving life-saving food aid, including supplementary products to prevent malnutrition.
“The second one is more long-term response to allow local communities to be able to prepare for, respond to and recover from climate shocks better,” said Ms. Rahmoun. “So, this includes resilience projects such as water projects. We’re doing irrigation canals, reforestation, and even micro insurance to help smallholder farmers to recover from a lost harvest, for example.”
“COP26 is also an opportunity for us to ask governments and donors to prioritize funding relating to climate adaptation programmes, to help countries to build a better risk management system, and even in Madagascar, because if nothing is done, hunger will increase exponentially in the coming years because of climate change,” she said, adding: “not only in Madagascar, but in other countries.”