According to different sources such as relief web , news24, and European commission for humanitarianism aid, in this year, there has been a drought in Ethiopia, particularly in the Easter and Southeastern part of the country. I have been closely following the news in this regards, and some of the News shows the level of severity on human is really shocking. I am deeply sadden. For a glimpse view on the nature of the drought is documented by this aljazeera video. According to the European commission for humanitarianism aid Easter Tigray, Wollo, Shewa, Arsi, Harerghe and Somalia areas are at risk. FEWS (http://www.fews.net/east-africa/ethiopia) presented the spatial distribution of the famine food insecurity of the few previous months and short term forecast estimation is shown in the following map.
The first thing is first! We need to help those people at risk. We need to feed those poor peasants suffered by this unpleasant evil, famine, and save their life. Most of the time, Ethiopian farmers are very dogmatic and religious to such natural disasters, and they mask their suffers and agonies. By the time the drought is discovered, it could be already late and the risk on human life could be very high. Worse than that, most of the time, all governments of Ethiopia has been always reckless about the situation , and they only worries about their power and refrain from accepting the fact. There, it takes another time to nationally accept the problem and act for the solution. IT is ok to play the political game, but HUMAN FIRST please!
Secondly, if the rainfall is short to provide the peoples' demand, we have to look for other option. For instance, for those pastoral areas, the government could have invest to drill some walls and supply water for animals. For pastoralist, few sites of water walls could serve large communities.
Fourthly, if not possible to maintain most the incoming rainfall into the blue water system, the next strategy is to make an effort to infiltrate the rainfall into the soil and store it in the form of what is called green water. So all the land management activities such as terrace and conservation tillages helps to infiltrate the rainfall. In a region where there is high potential evapotranspiration, the water will leave back to the atmosphere. If we don't use this stored water, it will leave as evaporation which is from bare land and which is non-productive. However, all the idea of the use of green water means that the return has to be through the plants in the form of transpiration, after producing the biomass instead of just evaporation from the bar lands. Hence, our land has to be covered in all the vegetations and increase the availability of the green water. In other words, our technology has and understanding of this transpiration need to clearly outline important crops (local climate adapted species ) so as to increase the water efficiency. SHIFT the transfer (cycle) from evaporative loss to useful transpiration!
Lastly, there has to be forecasting and prediction of those events. We know drought (famine) more than any country in this whole world. On the contrary, we are the least to develop the strategies and methods to forecast (predict). We don't have to say "the cause is El Nino effect" for every year's drought. The fact that the drought is happening almost in every two years specifically in this region, this reason does not convinced me at all. We really need to work what is exactly happening in the regional climate circulation and, be able to forecast the subsequent effect on the hydrological cycle of the region!
Huge number of animal is dying in some part of Afar and Somalia regions, and hence, life of the people depends on animal, pastoralist, are at high risks. Now the drought extends to the small land holding farmers in the above mentioned area. As reported from the News that the cause of the drought is rainfall shortage. Drought is essentially natural, and happens in different part of the world. It is unavoidable! However, how we react to the drought is what matters and what makes difference. The point is what has to be done and what strategies has to be designed to reduce the impacts of drought?
Thirdly, in semi-arid region, the focus has to be on water productivity, not on land productivity. The first step is to make an effort that the income water, rain, into the blue water system (small pond and natural and artificial lake). If we have water storage that we can supplement the rainfed agriculture, then, for sure, with all the degraded soil productivity, the farmers will have enough food production. INCREASE the accessibility of BLUE WATER for the farmers so as to increase water productivity! Blessed are those invest in the irrigation projects!
The first thing is first! We need to help those people at risk. We need to feed those poor peasants suffered by this unpleasant evil, famine, and save their life. Most of the time, Ethiopian farmers are very dogmatic and religious to such natural disasters, and they mask their suffers and agonies. By the time the drought is discovered, it could be already late and the risk on human life could be very high. Worse than that, most of the time, all governments of Ethiopia has been always reckless about the situation , and they only worries about their power and refrain from accepting the fact. There, it takes another time to nationally accept the problem and act for the solution. IT is ok to play the political game, but HUMAN FIRST please!
Secondly, if the rainfall is short to provide the peoples' demand, we have to look for other option. For instance, for those pastoral areas, the government could have invest to drill some walls and supply water for animals. For pastoralist, few sites of water walls could serve large communities.
Fourthly, if not possible to maintain most the incoming rainfall into the blue water system, the next strategy is to make an effort to infiltrate the rainfall into the soil and store it in the form of what is called green water. So all the land management activities such as terrace and conservation tillages helps to infiltrate the rainfall. In a region where there is high potential evapotranspiration, the water will leave back to the atmosphere. If we don't use this stored water, it will leave as evaporation which is from bare land and which is non-productive. However, all the idea of the use of green water means that the return has to be through the plants in the form of transpiration, after producing the biomass instead of just evaporation from the bar lands. Hence, our land has to be covered in all the vegetations and increase the availability of the green water. In other words, our technology has and understanding of this transpiration need to clearly outline important crops (local climate adapted species ) so as to increase the water efficiency. SHIFT the transfer (cycle) from evaporative loss to useful transpiration!
Lastly, there has to be forecasting and prediction of those events. We know drought (famine) more than any country in this whole world. On the contrary, we are the least to develop the strategies and methods to forecast (predict). We don't have to say "the cause is El Nino effect" for every year's drought. The fact that the drought is happening almost in every two years specifically in this region, this reason does not convinced me at all. We really need to work what is exactly happening in the regional climate circulation and, be able to forecast the subsequent effect on the hydrological cycle of the region!
Huge number of animal is dying in some part of Afar and Somalia regions, and hence, life of the people depends on animal, pastoralist, are at high risks. Now the drought extends to the small land holding farmers in the above mentioned area. As reported from the News that the cause of the drought is rainfall shortage. Drought is essentially natural, and happens in different part of the world. It is unavoidable! However, how we react to the drought is what matters and what makes difference. The point is what has to be done and what strategies has to be designed to reduce the impacts of drought?
Thirdly, in semi-arid region, the focus has to be on water productivity, not on land productivity. The first step is to make an effort that the income water, rain, into the blue water system (small pond and natural and artificial lake). If we have water storage that we can supplement the rainfed agriculture, then, for sure, with all the degraded soil productivity, the farmers will have enough food production. INCREASE the accessibility of BLUE WATER for the farmers so as to increase water productivity! Blessed are those invest in the irrigation projects!
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