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HOW DONKEYS MAY HELP FARMERS ADAPT TO CLIMATE CHANGE. (ESPECIALLY IN AFRICA). The Sahara seems to have started drying out around the time of Moses, and the Great Plagues of Egypt are fairly symptomatic of climate change.
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HOW DONKEYS MAY HELP FARMERS ADAPT TO CLIMATE CHANGE (ESPECIALLY IN AFRICA)
The Sahara seems to have started drying out around the time of Moses, and the Great Plagues of Egypt are fairly symptomatic of climate change.
The last few thousand years have seen fairly large variations in local climates, some of which may have been due to changes in human activity. Environments changed when farming was adopted, and farming had to adapt to environmental changes.
Well before the time of Moses, farming had already begun in Africa and was probably established all over the continent in conjunction with hunting, gathering wild plants, and pastoralism.
Regular climate variation obliged African farming to be characteristically mobile, and the mixture of systems probably helped.
The earliest and most important livestock seem to have been sheep, probably with goats.
Cattle did not exist in great numbers until about 1000 years ago.
Some major change in climate happened at about the same time, in some places drier, in some places wetter, but probably affecting the population levels of tsetse fly.
This changed whole societies around Africa, whose social organization became known as ‘Cattle Complex’.
But now climates are changing again. So what is the difference ?
The appetite for beef has increased to staggering proportions.
Lack of space has made farmers less mobile. They are running out of options.
Emissions from cattle are major contributors to the greenhouse gases which are blamed for climate change.
Cattle also make particularly heavy demands on the environment.
Yet we are told that, for Africa, the best option would be pastoralism that can use marginal areas.
There are animals better than cattle at doing this !
All the same, less meat and milk will have to be consumed, even if it can still be produced.
That still leaves the WORK, which will probably be increasing rather than decreasing. (Water shortages are predicted for most places.)
From the time of the Pharaohs, heavy work has been done by donkeys – mostly carrying loads. For some reason, they did not cross the Equator until colonial times.
Indigenous to Africa – alone of the domestic animals – this one: • Has very low food and water needs. • What it consumes, it converts very efficiently into energy. • It is well adapted to marginal environments. • It produces less greenhouse gas than ruminants. • Consumption and production are thus very friendly to environment and to economies.
Traditionally a transport animal, the donkey has become useful in many new contexts, including - brickmaking, guarding sheep & goats, tourism, therapy, and many other things, including cultivation.
Particularly easy to use, the donkey lends itself to many new technologies. (This one in Mozambique)
In different countries, new technologies are being developed. In Zambia, attention is being paid to Conservation Agriculture and organic techniques, both using donkeys and their wastes, both strategies which may now help cope with climate change. In Botswana, tourism is receiving attention. In Tanzania, transport is gaining attention. THE TIME FOR NETWORKING HAS ARRIVED, ESPECIALLY CONCERNING AN ANIMAL THAT CAN HELP SO MUCH AS AFRICA ADAPTS ONCE AGAIN TO CLIMATE CHANGE.
