Africa-Press – Eswatini. Minister of Agriculture Jabulani Mabuza has disclosed that government has prioritised adaptation in the fight against climate change.
Mabuza said this when launching three projects financed under Green Climate Fund yesterday at the Happy Valley Hotel.
The minister explained that the nation was now well aware of the effects of climate change, the droughts, floods, flush floods, heat waves, hailstorms, strong winds and other weather changes which were all common now.
He said the nation could not afford to just lament about the situation. “Government is committed and duty bound to implement appropriate adaptation strategies,” the minister stated.
The minister said it was an indisputable fact that prevention was better than cure, he stated that the cost of timely adaptation to prevent climate change related disasters was far lower than the cost of response to an occurring disaster or post occurrence response.
“As such adaptation remains our priority, as it was in our first nationally determined contribution (NCD),” the minister stated.
The minister mentioned that experts disclosed that the country’s climate public expenditure and institutional review found that out of 30 projects 19 were focused on adaption, addressing water, agriculture and biodiversity.
He mentioned that in the agricultural sector, adaptation strategies under implementation were centred on climate -smart agriculture which included the minimum-tillage system of crop production, conservation agriculture, protected cultivation, drip irrigation, fodder conservation and others.
He said however, these were implemented under the usual development approach which is slightly off-pace with the required robust climate change adaptation principles in-terms of comprehensiveness and cause-effect attribution, which required the use of scientific evidence.
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