Noticias

Bit by bit, East African smallholder farmers are adapting to climate change, according to a study we recently published in the journal Food Security. The story received significant attention from a number of global and African media outlets, highlighting both the positive aspects (farmers are adapting) and pointing to the ongoing challenges (they are not adapting quickly enough and not using well-tested approaches). Here are some of the highlights.

Reuters said that African farmers must do more to beat climate change, a story that was picked by worldwide media including the Huffington Post, the Jerusalem Post, Reuters AlertNet, the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), and Scientific American. 

Voice of America wrote how East African Farmers Plant Seeds of Innovation. In an interview, Patti Kristjanson, who led the research, described how East African farmers are aware of the extremes of climate change, but the driving factor behind their innovations is to ensure there’s enough to eat.

The New York Times featured the study in its Dot Earth blog. Andrew Revkin wrote that that the study’s conclusions show “there’s enormous potential to boost human resilience to climate extremes — whether the result of building greenhouse gases or nature’s built-in shocks — in places that are in harm’s way.”

The study was also featured on Nourishing the Planet, which highlighted the report’s findings about innovations that farmers have made, and how food insecurity is a key obstacle to innovation. IRIN Global, which offers humanitarian news and analysis, published a piece entitled CLIMATE CHANGE: Farmers too hungry to adapt, also highlighted the researchers' attempt to uncover relationships between food security and climate adaptation.

Globally, the story was featured in Xinhua English news (China), The Citizen (Tanzania), and allAfrica.com

In case you missed it, here is an infographic about the study’s findings.