GRAY MAGUIRE: Rain-fed farmers get a raw deal from agri-investments
Despite their 95% contribution to Southern and East African food production, less than 5% of agri-money toward these farmers
In a recent column I chided the government officials of several Southern and East African countries who made some poorly thought-out pronouncements on their countries’ ambitions for carbon credit revenues at the launch of the Africa Voluntary Carbon Credits Market Forum in Zimbabwe.
Last week, in a twist of poetic justice, I found myself sitting alongside more than a few of them at the Zambezi Watercourse Commission’s (Zamcom’s) rain-fed agriculture forum in Gaborone. While the conference confirmed my suspicions about their lack of understanding of the carbon markets, the more abiding impression was of the precarious existence of their largely small-scale farming rural citizens in a rapidly changing climate. ..
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