The Botswana government declared the 2023-2024 season one of "extreme agricultural drought," and local communities and their farmers have now revealed how they were affected.
What's happening?
From October 2023 to March 2024, the country's rainy season, there was excessive dryness, with February 2024 having the driest conditions since the 1980s, according to Africa Press. This marked Botswana's third consecutive excessive drought year.
In an interview with Dialogue Earth, Phetogo Bonang, a farmer from Majwaneng village, said, "We can't grow anything, because we no longer receive regular rains like when I was younger."
Communities like Majwaneng rely on rain-fed crops and livestock, and the droughts are causing alarming food insecurity.
Why are these droughts concerning?
"Hope is lost such that even the Department of Meteorological Services does not know what is happening," said Bonang.
Droughts, which are exacerbated by planetary overheating due to changes to the climate, are expected to affect 3 in 4 people by 2050, according to the United Nations.
The effects of this environmental crisis are not simply dried-up bodies of water but diminished food supplies — such as a lack of production of grain, like sorghum, which is a staple ingredient in Botswana villages.
Without adequate rainfall, these crops do not grow, and malnutrition becomes a problem for locals. Furthermore, the drought's effects trickle down to other parts of the food chain, starving livestock like cows.
And droughts don't just impact the livelihoods of farmers and ranchers — they affect everyone on Earth.
Aside from the obvious issues with food supply, droughts can negatively affect energy production, as all means of generating energy involve some amount of water. This then ripples out to create issues with transportation, manufacturing, and tourism.
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Definitely 😭 What's being done about droughts?
Botswana's government, in addition to non-governmental organizations, are hoping to address the problems in the long term through methods like crop engineering for drought-resistant plants.
In the meantime, they have sought temporary solutions to these climate-related issues through subsidies, which have been provided to supplement animal feed for farmers. Additionally, emergency food relief services have been initiated for locals suffering from food shortages, according to Dialogue Earth.
While these droughts do immediate damage to the communities surrounding them, the problems end up affecting everyone across the world — raising the price of groceries, and throwing future food security into doubt.
By educating ourselves on the impacts of overheating, and doing our part to prevent raising Earth's temperature, we can try to slow the acceleration of these issues and maintain a flourishing, healthy world.
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