Breaking News: Climate Change: Sporadic Rain Destabilizes 2018 Planting Season, Famine Feared - News Paper

Crop cultivation is an important activity in Donga Mantung and farmers rely mostly on maize farming to earn a living. But this activity depends highly on the rain. This year, farmers have witnessed a change in the rains that call for planting. For 10 days now, farmers have been waiting for the rains to come to no avail. The question as to whether the seeds are drought resistant abound high and it is feared. Donga Mantung Divisional Delegate for Agriculture and Rural Development, Ncham George says farmers should stop planting. “We have called on farmers to stop planting and to wait for the rains. At the level of my office we have not started the distribution of seeds”. To Ncham George, the rain that fell 10 days ago was not sufficient enough to generate heat that can enable crops to germinate. Yet, some farmers in their majority ignored the call from the delegate of Agriculture.

Mami Rebecca says she also planted maize seed because she saw that other women were planting as well.

Villagers have started looking at the present stalemate as the beginning of the end of the world. In just the past few days, the precarious situation has had diversified interpretations. It is widely said in villages that the gods are angry while another school of thought describes the scarcity of the rain as witchcraft. In some villages, the population is actually looking at the traditional rulers to pour libation calling on the gods to send the rain. But scientifically, the argument has proven not to hold water yet it is widely believed by almost all the villagers in Donga Mantung Division. 

Although atmospheric scientists increasingly believe that this is the impact of climate change, traditionalists on the other hand still think that the gods are angry and that the land has been curse by numerous sacrileges committed by man. Yet they haven't yet figured out precisely what's behind them the present stalemate. It is common occurrence to see a traditional ruler pouring libation to call on the gods to bring back the rain or bring back a drying stream.

Framers in the Mbaw plain, Ndu, Tabenken and many other localities are said to have planted all their farms. In areas where the rains fell twice, the crops have shown signs of shooting up while majority of the localities have fried their seed materials in the soil. Shey Julius expresses fear that the present situation could lead to serious famine given that fufu-corn is the most consumed meal in Donga Mantung Division. “By next week, if we don’t have good rain, then we will know that the gods are really angry at us” says Pa Tobias. The most serious threat however is that much is being talked about climate change but no adaptive measures are put in place to benefit the rural masses.

 



When News Breaks Out, We Break In. (The 2014 Bloggies Finalist)

When News Breaks Out, We Break In! If you find any of our stories worth reproducing, a citation, acknowledgment or reference, would identify us as a source of information.

from The Eye Newspaper http://ift.tt/2Gy98Xo
Breaking News: Climate Change: Sporadic Rain Destabilizes 2018 Planting Season, Famine Feared - News Paper