With erratic weather patterns and unreliable harvests from rain-fed agriculture, some small-scale farmers in Zambia are turning to beekeeping to outsmart climate change and keep up their income
By UNDP in Zambia
Climate change effects
For a small-scale farmer who has repeatedly suffered poor maize harvests due to unpredictable rainfall, Emma Makwelele is turning to beekeeping to create a new and steady source of income.
Makwelele usually grows maize, groundnuts and sweet potatoes when the rainfall over Zambia’s Rufunsa District was still reliable in the rainy season, showering the soil with enough moisture for crops to survive until the monsoon. But this year, a prolonged dry spell linked to climate change destroyed much of her harvest and dried up water resources.
“We lost almost everything. We just ate the little that was harvested. Nothing was left to keep or to sell,” she lamented. “Farming is hard these days because it is difficult to know when the rains will come.”
Makwelele’s story is typical of many small-scale farmers across large swathes of rural Zambia, where unreliable harvests from rain-fed agriculture has put food security at risk for farming communities.
This year, Zambia suffered one of the worsts El Nino-induced dry conditions, the poorest rainfall season recorded in the country since 1981, according to meteorological data. The impact on agriculture has left 2.3 million Zambians, mainly rural population without enough to eat, according to the country's recent Humanitarian Response Plan, which estimates at least US$89.5 million is needed to provide life-saving and early recovery assistance to people in need.
Undaunted by the effects of climate change, the 34-year-old mother of five has an ambitious plan: to turn beekeeping into a rural enterprise.
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