Farmers in Busia and Homa Bay counties have been urged to actively engage in growing of cassava, sorghum and sweet potatoes to fight food insecurity.

According to a report released by Adaptation to Climate Change and Insurance (ACCI) dubbed 'Seizing opportunities in changing climate,' the three crops do better under dry climatic conditions. The report says they are the most suitable adaptive crop varieties in Western Kenya.

ACCI national project co-ordinator, Joab Osumba, says farmers from Busia and Homa Bay counties should take advantage of their suitable climatic conditions and undertake the growing of the food crops that can adapt to climate change.

"Climate change has become a reality and is around us. Farmers therefore have no alternative but to adapt to the situation by planting food crops that withstand adverse weather conditions and floods," he says.

The report says that food production and security in Busia county is at 50 per cent, an improvement of approximately 0.87 per cent five years ago. Food security has improved to four per cent up from three per cent five years ago.

Maize is still leading the pack as the staple food taking into account that 77 per cent of the food crops grown in Busia county is maize, with cassava and sorghum recording a growth yield of 14 and eight per cent respectively. However, maize yield gap reached a high of 61 per cent due to drought and diseases compared to cassava at 56 per cent due to drought.

The report further states that out of the 15 types of food crops in both counties, sorghum, cassava, sweet potatoes, maize and groundnuts have the potential to survive in the adverse weather condition. Open pollinated maize and hybrid maize are also recommended to farmers due to their high yield potential.

Osumba further says that weather observations in Western Kenya indicate that maximum day temperatures have increased between a magnitude of 0.5 and 2.1 degrees within a span of 50 years, which is expected to rise.

The project is funded by the German ministry for the environment, nature conservation and nuclear safety and implemented by the ministry of agriculture in collaboration with the GTZ.

"Cassava is an important root and tuber crop, while sorghum has the potential to thrive in arid and semi-arid regions in Kenya with dry weather conditions. Farmers are forced to grapple with unpredictable rain pattern that make farming extremely difficult considering that the rains are inadequate to ensure food security," he says.

Since it was launched in 2011, the ACCI project has seen more than 5,000 farmers being trained across the two counties.

The project has also benefited the local community through sensitization on climate change, modern farming techniques for higher yield, sampling of soil, tracking of adaptive capacity skills, prior vulnerability risk assessment, crop pest and disease control training as well as the provision of farm inputs.

Busia county director of livestock production, who is also the acting agriculture and animal resources chief officer, Nyongesa Wafula, says the project sought to sensitize farmers on how to adapt to climate change and engage in active farming so that they can be able to improve their livelihoods.

"The main objective of the just ended ACCI project had been to enable the farmers as well as small-scale entrepreneurs in Homa Bay and Busia counties to increase their food production capacity by adapting to climate change," says Nyongesa.

Source - http://allafrica.com/