That climate is changing, is no longer a distant dream derived from predictive scenarios, it is a reality. We are already experiencing unpredictable weather, unreliable and insufficient rains, higher than normal temperatures and long drought periods. Critical resources such as water are becoming scarce. For countries dependent on rain-fed agriculture particularly in Africa, climate change poses a significant challenge to food security. Climate change will disproportionately hurt the poor mostly smallholder subsistence farmers making it difficult for the most affected countries to eliminate poverty, hunger and malnutrition. Africa will need to innovate constantly to mitigate the impacts of climate change not only on crop production but also on fisheries, forestry and livestock. Technical fixes will have to be buttressed by social and economic programmes to enable the poor to build fairy robust and resilient livelihood systems.

The theme of this year's World Food Day is "Climate is changing: Food and agriculture must too." In choosing this theme, the United Nations wants to draw everybody's attention to the challenges posed by climate change particularly in the field of agriculture, food security and nutrition and the downstream impact of these on national economies and the welfare of citizens. The current international consensus is that the African continent will bear the brunt of climate change. Even without climate change, most African economies are fragile and vulnerable to cyclic down changes in the global economy. Africa's rural economy where most of small farmers live, is significantly fragile due to poor production and productivity, lack of inputs, poor access to inputs and product markets, and insignificant investment agri-based industries.

At the time when Africa is facing climate change challenges, simultaneously the population is growing steadily and for most of the recent past, African economies have been growing at a healthy and respectable rate of about five percent per year. There is no doubt that the trend of economic growth will slow down at a time when the continent has to feed more people.

However, Africa cannot sit and wait for divine intervention or the goodwill of the global community. The continent has to rise to the challenge – at national, sub-regional and regional levels. That agriculture and food systems need to adapt to the adverse effects of climate change is an imperative, not a choice. Agriculture in Africa must become more resilient to climate change. It should become more productive, stable and sustainable. Part of the solution lies in technology including irrigation and water conservation, use of drought and diseases resistant crop varieties, planned management of land including pastures, conservation of land and forests particularly water catchment areas, conservation of soil moisture, production of high value crops that have ready markets and can fetch better prices. Most of these ideas and technological practices are already available off the shelf. Africa does not need to reinvent the wheel but rather to apply them effectively and widely. Scale is very important if we have to reverse or properly adapt to the challenges of climate change in agriculture.

In recent years, Conservation Agriculture has become an important 'climate smart' intervention. The approach entails promotion of good agricultural practices including the use of appropriate varieties of drought resistant crops, and certified seed, minimal disturbance of soils, timely planting, correct fertilizer application, improved post-harvest storage and conservation agriculture. The approach has been proven to increase productivity and profitability and is considered more resilient to climate shocks, reducing households' vulnerability to poverty and food deficits. With FAO's technical assistance, Kenya is among the leading countries in Africa in implementing conservation agriculture.

Technology is but part of the answer. It is important for African countries to think creatively and include social and economic interventions in the toolbox of climate smart innovations. Here in Kenya, financial interventions in form of 'index-based insurance' is already showing some promising signs in helping pastoral communities cope with adverse effects of drought. In most part, financial interventions such as cash transfers will have to be designed so that they help farmers to acquire, build and manage productive assets efficiently.

Important yet often neglected is the social aspect. In agriculture, as in many other fields, adaptation or change from one status to another is a battle of mind. Those who need to adapt have to be convinced of the benefit of leaving behind what they have been doing to what they need to do (differently) because of some exigency or new reality. Subsistence farmers are known for their little enthusiasm in adapting to new circumstances and in taking up of technologies until they are convinced that the proposed change carries less risk and is profitable. There is therefore need for concerted effort to develop educational and advocacy programmes to educate farmers on climate change, its impact and adaptation options. But we cannot afford to stop at farmers; Africa must aim to introduce climate change topics in schools so that future farmers, extension workers and researcher have good knowledge of climate change and its implication on food security.

To promote adaptation of agriculture to climate change, countries will have to either design specific policies or modify existing ones to accommodate the new reality. A good example is Kenya's Climate Smart Agriculture Framework Programme (KCSAFP 2015-2030). The Programme aims to leverage on global opportunities and tap into available climate finance instruments by assisting farmers to directly benefit from the efforts of the national and county governments, development partners, the private sector, civil society organizations and farmer associations. So far, the collaborative initiative on Integrating Agriculture into National Adaptation Plans has supported fourteen county consultations in the country. The recently assented Fisheries Management and Development Act (2015) is another good example of Kenya's intent to manage natural resources (in this case marine and other water bodies) sustainably and profitably in the face of climate change.

In the face of changing weather patterns, frequent drought and other effects of climate change, it is easy to lose sight of the opportunity this may entail in transforming African agriculture and make it adapt to climate change. Today's Africa is a far better continent than that of the 1960s and therefore more able to apply, among other things, emerging mobile technologies to deliver a variety of information to agricultural actors along the value chain. Weather information and advisories could be relayed to farmers at a minimum cost, information on availability and prices of inputs could be delivered to farmers and agro-dealers almost in real time, predictive weather information could be made available to insurers speedily, etc. Thus ICT is an opportunity to be harnessed. The other opportunity that is readily available in Africa is a youthful population. Given young people's propensity to use technology and to adapt to changing circumstances, policies and incentives are needed to attract young people into agriculture. They could turn out to be the major force in driving agriculture to climate change adaptation. They could be the force that will spur the transformation of agriculture from subsistence to an efficient commercial orientation, robust enough to withstand the effects of climate change.

On this year's World Food Day, we must reflect on the impact of climate change on agriculture but more importantly, we must be the aspiration. We must not be overawed by the challenges but instead focus on human, technological and economic opportunities available to us. It is only by seizing opportunities that we can transform agriculture to achieve zero hunger despite the reality of climate change.

Gabriel Rugalema
FAO Representative in Kenya