To survive climate change, Nile farmers go back to school
Farmers along the Nile River. Image by David Broad, Creative Commons License.
Digital Reporter
Monday, June 5, 2017, 9:40 AM - Home to one of the world's oldest human settlements, the Nile River provided ancient Egyptians with their livelihood -- from food and paper to trade opportunities and political security.
Thousands of years later, the sanctity of the river remains. It's the wellspring of 95 per cent of Egypt's renewable water resources, according to the UN's Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO).
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But changing precipitation and a global rise in temperatures are contributing to the river's already unpredictable annual flow, hitting farmers and food security the hardest.
According to National Geographic, Egypt's crop yields aren't keeping up with the country's booming population, and farmers' incomes aren't corresponding with the increasing cost of supplies.
This is why some farmers along the Nile are returning to school. Through a new program from the UN FAO, Egyptian farmers are able to meet meet once a week to exchange advice and learn new agricultural techniques.
The Nile River near dusk. Image licensed under Creative Commons.
The FAO's project manager in Egypt, Zahra Ahmed, told Quartz that the new course shows farmers best practices for water conservation, germination, and a better selection of seeds to ensure the longevity and size of their yield.
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Farmers in Egypt depend on irrigation canals that regularly pump their land full of water, National Geographic reports. The extensive irrigation system came after the creation of the Aswan High Dam in the 1960s, which halted the country's annual floods (an event that farmers historically depended on for thousands of years between July and October.)
Ethiopia is now in the middle of its own multi-billion dollar dam construction program -- one that could disrupt the flow of the Nile upstream, impacting Egypt.
Farmers along the Nile. Image licensed under Creative Commons.
But of equal concern is the impact of human-accelerated climate change.
Egypt is responsible for less than 1 per cent of the planet's total greenhouse gas emissions, yet it is among the most vulnerable countries in the world to climate change.
This, Quartz reports, is largely due to the country's population, land-use, geography, and economics.
In an effort to assist farmers, the FAO introduced 15 schools across five regions. Small groups of farmers that attend the weekly classes can find out more about scientifically supported agricultural techniques to increase crop yields.
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