Overberg media trip: stabilising soil structures (part 5)

 In this country, soil erosion is a major concern (le Roux & Smith, 2014), and so I was particularly interested to view the ORCT's work in this regard.

A deep gully was visible in the distance, an unwitting consequence of the contour walls under previous tillage systems, bringing water off production lands at quite a speed, to meet here before flowing downhill!

I accompanied a small party who wanted to take a closer look at gully erosion and the Project’s rehabilitation efforts.

Gully systems can be stabilised with gabion structures. Rocks removed from crop lands can be put to good use here.

Lynch walks on hay spread out to rehabilitate this gully. This increases the development of soil and slows down water moving through the gully system.

A combination of gabion walls (centre), geotextiles and soil blankets (bottom left), drift fences (centre right) and hay bales (bottom left) are encouraging the return of vegetation to this gully.

The success of restoring vegetation here is clearly evident. This greatly decreases sediment being discharged into river systems which in turn improves the ability of fish and aquatic invertebrates to survive.

The way we work the soil – our tillage practices – can limit the surface water runoff and prevent the loss of soil, one of the great threats to humanity's habitat (IPBES, 2018). See the "Conservation agriculture" and "Soils" chapters in the Agri Handbook.

Overberg media trip: Conservation management - what's in it for farmers? (part 4)

Lynch gives an overview of conservation work on farms.

The aim of the ORCT's efforts is to improve habitat condition and increase ecosystem resilience. When you are looking after nature, it looks after you.







To reach this stage of ecosystem service, the ORCT looks at halting the degradation caused by:

• incorrect fire regimes 
• alien invasive plant species 
• soil erosion 
• pesticide drift and 
• supplementary feeding.

Landowners are advised to burn in late summer or early autumn (the most favourable time for palatable grasses and bulbs in the Renosterveld), and also not to burn too frequently (every seven to twelve years). The veld should be left for 18 - 24 months afterwards (no grazing). Apart from the expertise supplied by the ORCT, landowners can also access funding for activities like ecological burns and subsequent fencing.

Landowner Christina Stewart responds to questions from the media. The Stewarts run a grain and sheep farm. Mrs Stewart has become a member of the ORCT's board.

Much of the rehabilitation work happens by looking after the watercourses (the subject of the previous blog) and corridors on land. Corridors between farm lands, especially corridors around watercourses, are encouraged as good agricultural practice, and have certain advantages to landowners:

• Funds and expertise can be accessed (like that of the Green Trust and Overberg Renosterveld Conservation Trust).
• Less soil ends up in the water.
• Corridors lead to better quality water (corridors play a role in neutralising chemicals from fertilisers, pesticides etc).
• In times of a drought, this water is of value to farmers.

Several times during the day, Curtis-Scott could be seen photographing flowers. For the farmer's convenience, the handbook that the ORCT makes available to farmers, The Overberg Ruens Renosterveld, is filled with pictures of mammals, birds, insects, reptiles, amphibians, spiders and scorpions, and plants along with scientific name and a brief overview. Most of the photographs are credited to her. I envy the world she sees and knows while we all look on the same view.

Aspalathus and pollinator. Photo used courtesy of Dr Curtis-Scott and the ORCT.

A small party went to have a closer look at rehabilitation efforts in a gully, visible from two kilometres away (covered in the next blog), after which we board the bus.

The Conservation Easement Programme is an inexpensive, long-term conservation commitment by landowners who are given assistance with management, and financial aid towards implementing the agreement.

The management plan in a Conservation Easement sets out on a map the "production" vs "conservation" areas. The agreement becomes part of the title deeds of the property, meaning that it is transferred to future owners of the land as well.

We had been on the tar for some ten kilometres when we noticed three blue cranes on our left. Appreciation gave way to excitement as several more were spotted as the bus came to a halt. I counted a total of seventeen of this species which were previously on the critically endangered list but have now been relegated to vulnerable but stable.

Blue cranes, South Africa's national bird, are no longer critically endangered.

Earlier, Keir Lynch had said: "Conservation didn't save the blue cranes: agriculture did". The bus is on the move again and we travel mostly in silence, glad to be out of the sun as we digest the potential of the interventions we have seen this day.

Overberg media trip: Watercourse Restoration Project (part 3)

The handbook for farmers The Overberg Ruens Renosterveld has the following words in bold: "Your patch is not a single piece of veld, but it is part of a critical network of one of the most threatened habitats on earth!"

We mentioned that 95% of Renosterveld has been converted to cropland. The remaining Renosterveld is fragmented, small (only 10% is larger than 100 hectares), and linked by tiny waterways. Because managing these surviving patches of Renosterveld in isolation would probably lead to further loss, linking corridors between agricultural land and creating awareness of the importance of watercourses has become a very particular focus of the conservation work.

Cameras were set up to survey wildlife moving in the corridor between agricultural land. You’d be amazed at how much life happens in the area around a watercourse between two lands of crops, and how many species depend on the Renosterveld for their existence!

Large grey mongoose, small grey mongoose, water mongoose, yellow mongoose, large-spotted genet, small spotted genet, steenbuck, duiker, meerkat, Cape clawless otter, honeybadger, Aardvark and Aardworf were all among the wildlife captured on camera.

An Aardvark caught on camera. Looking like something out of a Winnie-the-Pooh story, this solitary and nocturnal animal feeds on termites. Photo used courtesy of Dr Curtis-Scott and the ORTC.

The Aardwolf feeds almost exclusively on termites. Its weak jaw and small teeth probably mean that there is no account of it ever being a threat to stock. Photo used courtesy of Dr Curtis-Scott and the ORTC.

Landowners can take watercourses  (perennial or annual streams, rivers and seepage areas) for granted and not notice erosion, salinisation and invasive alien weeds until late in the day. The ORTC provides farmers with advice and assistance with practical management.

 

Overberg media trip: the choice to go left instead of straight (part 2)

We arrived at the river where Lynch addressed us on the surprising find: Heuningnes redfin minnow living in watercourses that seemed unsuitable for indigenous fish. The fish are a critically endangered indigenous species.

He paints the probable scenario of how these fish ended up here; how in the early years of earth as we now know it, the redfin went left instead of straight. As millennia passed and waters subsided, these fish became part of inland rivers and streams. The extreme drought conditions of the past four years have been bad news for the fish with many pools and sections of rivers drying up.

Some people can read palms, others the stars, and come up with a world of information. Watercourses and the fish found in them are a similar "book" for the person with the know-how, and it is fascinating to listen to an analysis.

A blog by the Overberg Renosterveld Conservation Trust (ORCT) on the redfin finding can be read here.

Of interest to us is that good agricultural practice works in the fish's favour. Lynch identifies Conservation Agriculture (CA) as the first. CA allows for greater infiltration of water into the ground and consequently, less pesticides run off into rivers. Secondly, lands which allow a buffer between crops and rivers allow for sediment carrying pesticides and other chemicals to be captured, again preventing them from spoiling water quality in the rivers.

We returned to the vehicles to continue our tour of the ORTC's work in the area.

Overberg media trip: setting the stage (part1)

I had done a quick reconnaissance of Napier, the Overberg Renosterveld and fynbos before setting out on the field trip – but no amount of desk research prepares you for the open spaces of the Overberg! 

Nomonde Mxhalisa, marketing manager of the WWF Nedbank Green Trust, had  invited a delegation to view the work that the Trust is supporting. (What an excellent way to market your work and projects: fly journalists and writers out to see for themselves; their articles and documentaries make a worthy supplement/substitute for any adverts you may take out in the media!)

 

After a sumptuous breakfast at Suntouched Inn, we set off to Hansies River to meet the Overberg Renosterveld Conservation Trust team.

The reader will understand that Renosterveld is the least appreciated component in the Cape Floristic Region. Its (mostly) grasses and shrubs come off third best against its cousins: Fynbos and Strandveld's Proteas, Ericas and Restios.

Renosterveld occurs on rich soil: no wonder it gave way to crops! And the Western Cape, which now produces most of South Africa's wheat, is perhaps first in line when it comes to claiming the "breadbasket of South Africa" title. Today however, less than 5% of the original Renosterveld remains, and its vegetation types are classified as Critically Endangered.

Renosterveld "is considered the richest bulb habitat on Earth", writes the director of the Overberg Renosterveld Conservation Trust (ORCT), Dr Odette Curtis-Scott. It boasts a wide variety of mammals, birds, insects, reptiles, spiders and scorpions, amphibians and plants (more about these later). A second person in the ORCT is Keir Lynch. 

Nomonde Mxhalisa (Green Trust), Onkemetse Nteta (WWF SA), Dr Odette Curtis-Scott and Keir Lynch (ORCT) discuss matters related to the first morning. On the left, Linky Bierman (SABC) looks on.

A fourth-generation South African of Irish descent, with blonde dreadlocks, earrings, and an informed and authoritative presence, Keir is the Project Manager or the Watercourse Restoration Project run by the ORCT. After a brief discussion, we follow him to a tributary of the Kars river where we will hear about Heuningnes Redfin.

Agricultural technology can turn African Savannah into global food basket – African Development Bank

Press release

The African Development Bank has determined that the African Savannah can support the production of maize, soybean, and livestock, and transform the continent into a net exporter of these commodities

IOWA, United States of America, October 25, 2018/ -- The African Development Bank (www.AfDB.org) is championing a new regional and global effort to transform the African Savannah from a “Sleeping Giant” to the cradle of the continent’s green revolution.

“This sleeping giant needs to wake up,” the Bank’s Vice-President for Agriculture, Human and Social Development, Jennifer Blanke, told an audience at a 2018 World Food Prize side event in Des Moines, Iowa last week.  Blanke described Africa’s nearly 400 million hectares of Savannah zones as “the world’s largest agricultural frontier,” and if a small fraction of that cultivatable land – some 16 million hectares - is transformed, it could well set Africa up to decrease dependence on food imports, feed itself and contribute to feeding the world.

Africa is host to 60% of the world’s uncultivated arable land, but currently spends an estimated US$35 billion per year on importing food. This figure is projected to shoot up to US$110 billion by 2025. Africa is importing what it should actually be producing: 22 million metric tons of maize, two million metric tons of soybean, one million metric tons of broiler meat and 10 million metric tons of milk product each year. This situation is made worse when African countries export raw goods outside the continent to be processed into consumer products imported back into Africa for purchase. In essence, Africa is exporting jobs outside the continent, and contributing to Africa’s poverty challenges.

The African Development Bank has determined that the African Savannah can support the production of maize, soybean, and livestock, and transform the continent into a net exporter of these commodities. Only ten percent of the African Savannah is under cultivation – better utilized, small sections of Africa’s grasslands could provide direct jobs for tens of millions of young people and indirect jobs for many more.

Blanke, who spoke on behalf of African Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina, noted that all of Africa’s Savannah is more than twice as large as Brazil’s “Cerrados” that launched that country’s farming economy success. She said transforming a small part of Africa’s mixed woodland grasslands, in a smart and sustainable way, can produce enough to supply all the continent’s maize, soybean, and livestock requirements.

Brazil transformed its tropical Cerrados into a US$54 billion food industry within two decades through skillful development of production technologies for new crop and livestock varieties; innovative soil and crop management programs adapted to the tropics; wide-scale dissemination of new agricultural technologies; low interest loans, and ambitious rural development programs.
The Bank’s Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation for the Savannahs (TAAT-S) initiative seeks to transform 16 million Ha out of Africa’s 400 million Ha of Savannah into an agribusiness hive for the production of maize, soybean, and livestock. That is just about four percent of the continent’s mixed woodland and grassland areas. If African countries can harness the available technologies with the right policies, they will rapidly raise agricultural productivity and incomes for farmers, as well as assure lower food prices for consumers.

Vice President Blanke led a Bank delegation selling the merits of its TAAT-S initiative at the World Food Prize gathering. The Bank’s TAAT-S session discussed training, innovation, entrepreneurship, and policy support for transformation of African Savannahs.

To ensure effective implementation, the Bank has looked to Brazil’s agri-business success story to engage with organizations with proven track record in tropical and conservation agriculture. These include the Brazilian Research Corporation and the Agricultural Corporation of Brazil, the Argentine Association of Zero-tillage, and the Argentine Agricultural Research Institute – all part of a systematic effort at technology introduction and adaptation.

TAAT-S was launched in October 2017 in Ghana and has since been operating in Zambia, Guinea and Gabon. The Bank expects to launch TAAT-S in Uganda, Kenya, Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, and Mozambique next year.

When TAAT-S is fully implemented, Africa can expect to double its maize production from a current 50 million metric tons per annum to 100 million metric tons, to triple soybean production from less than three million metric tons to nine million metric tons, and to double livestock production from 8.5 million metric tons to 16 million metric tons by 2025.

The TAAT-S session was part of Borlaug Dialogue International Symposium, held in conjunction with the World Food Prize Laureate Ceremony. The US$250,000 World Food Prize recognizes accomplishments of individuals who have advanced human development by improving the quality, quantity, or availability of food in the world. African Development Bank President Adesina is the 2017 World Food Prize laureate.

Oxfam reads climate report and looks at Africa

Oxfam press release (edited)

Yesterday, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a report detailing progress and pathways to limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Since Africa remains the continent with the highest Prevalence of Undernourishment (PoU), affecting almost 21 percent of the population (more than 256 million people) [i], it is natural to be concerned about how this continent is affected. Oxfam's response follows:

"A hotter Africa is a hungrier Africa. Today at only 1.1 degrees of warming globally, crops and livestock across the region are being hit and hunger is rising, with poor small scale women farmers, living in rural areas suffering the most. It only gets worse from here. To do nothing more and simply follow the commitments made in the Paris Agreement condemns the world to 3 degrees of warming. The damage to our planet and humanity would be exponentially worse and irreparable.

"None of this is inevitable. What gives us hope is that some of the poorest and lowest emitting countries are now leading the climate fight. We've moved from an era of 'you first' to 'follow me' - it's time for the rich world to do just that. Oxfam calls for increased, responsible and accountable climate finance from rich countries that supports small scale farmers, especially women to realize their right to food security and climate justice". 

Fluctuations in agricultural production due to climate variations along with inefficient agricultural systems cause food insecurity, one of the most obvious indicators of poverty.  The 2016 El Niño phenomenon, which was super charged by the effects of climate change, crippled rain-fed agricultural production and left over 40 million people foods insecure in Africa. Without urgent action to reduce global emissions, the occurrence of climate shocks and stresses in the Africa region are expected to get much worse.

• On 5 July this year, Africa is likely to have registered its hottest reliable record temperature in Ouargla, northern Algeria, of 51.3C (124.3F).[ii]
• There is mounting evidence that higher temperatures linked to climate change have worsened drought and humanitarian disaster in East Africa, including last year’s drought which left over 13 million people dangerously hungry.[iii]
• Even at 1.5 degrees of warming, climate impacts in West Africa would be devastating. Wheat yields could fall by up to 25 percent,[iv] and at 1.5 degrees Lagos in Nigeria could become a newly heat stressed city like Delhi in India.[v]
• In sub-Saharan Africa 1.5 degrees warming by the 2030s could lead to about 40 percent of present maize cropping areas being no longer suitable for current cultivars, and significant negative impacts on sorghum suitability are projected. Under warming of less than 2 degrees by the 2050s, total crop production could be reduced by 10 percent.[vi]
• At 2 degrees of warming heat extremes never experienced before could affect 15 percent of sub-Saharan Africa’s land area in the hot season,[vii] causing deaths and threatening farmers’ ability to grow crops.
• If global temperature rises by more than 2 degrees by the end of the century, by 2050 this could see daytime temperatures in North Africa (and the Middle East) rise to 46 degrees on the hottest days, which can be deadly.[viii]

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[i] Africa remains the continent with the highest Prevalence of Undernourishment (PoU), affecting almost 21 percent of the population (more than 256 million people). FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO (2018) The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2018. Building climate resilience for food security and nutrition. Rome, FAO. http://www.fao.org/3/I9553EN/i9553en.pdf  
[ii] BBC Online 14 July 2018, Five places that have just broken heat records https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-44779367 

[iii] Carty T. (2017) A Climate in Crisis: How climate change is making drought and humanitarian disaster worse in East Africa. Oxfam media brief https://www.oxfam.org/en/research/climate-crisis  

[iv] Schleussner, C.-F. et al. (2016) Differential climate impacts for policy-relevant limits to global warming: the case of 1.5 °C and 2 °C, Earth System Dynamics 7, 327-351, page 337 https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-7-327-2016

[v] Tom K. R. et al. (2017) Communicating the deadly consequences of global warming for human heat stress, PNAS April 11, 2017 114 (15) p3861-3866, Page 3863 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1617526114   

[vi] World Bank (2013) Turn Down the Heat: Climate Extremes, Regional Impacts, and the Case for Resilience, page XVIII https://bit.ly/1aplL4R  

[vii] World Bank (2013) Turn Down the Heat: Climate Extremes, Regional Impacts, and the Case for Resilience, page XXVI https://bit.ly/1aplL4R

[viii] Lelieveld, J. et al (2016) Climatic Change, Volume 137, p245-260  https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-016-1665-6  

Find the Agri Handbook's climate change chapter here.