Trump's decision will mean that either governments (-3) of the world will stiffen their commitment to minimizing human contribution to global warming, or that some of the committed governments will be less inclined to hold as strongly to their commitment as a result of the Trump-denial of American leadership in the climate debate .. thank Sod so many major US energy companies remain committed to their positive contribution to the effort Trump and his supporters do not believe is worthwhile.
Actually that possibly should be a (-2) as Nicaragua didn't sign on because they didn't think the agreement went far enough, so they may be doing all they reasonably could be expected to in spite of not being a signee.
Climate change in Nicaragua pushes farmers into uncertain world
As crops fail and the weather becomes less predictable, Nicaraguans are seeing rising food prices amid debate on how to defend the country against climate change
This year’s drought in Nicaragua has been the worst in 44 years. Photograph: Inti Ocon/AFP/Getty Images
Global development is supported by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Oliver Balch in Chinandega province @OLIVERBALCH
Wednesday 10 December 2014 18.00 AEDT
Mercedes Azevedo lost her house and 17 relatives when a mudslide triggered by hurricane Mitch engulfed her village in October 1998. More than 2,500 people died in the Casita Volcano tragedy, one of the worst in Nicaragua’s recent history.
Now, 51-year-old Azevedo and her fellow survivors find themselves under threat from the weather once again. This time it’s too little rain, not too much.
“I lost all my crops in the first harvest: three manzanas (5.2 acres) of corn and one manzana of beans. Everything, gone … I rent my land and now have debts I can’t repay,” she says, standing on the porch of the house in Santa Maria, Chinandega province, where she was resettled after the hurricane.
“It’s been tough. We’ve had to substitute beans for rice, tortillas and potatoes,” says 49-year-old Julieta Bucardo, a shopper in the central market of León. “The price of beans, for example, reached more than 37 cordovas (£0.89) recently. At the start of the year, we used to think 15 was a lot.”
When the prolonged drought eventually ended in late August, it did so with such violence that the government announced an emergency to cope with the flash floods. Only with the recent arrival of the year’s second harvest has the price of staple grains begun to fall.
Nicaragua’s recent weather patterns will not surprise many climate scientists. The 2013 global climate risk survey .. http://germanwatch.org/en/download/8551.pdf (pdf) places the Central American nation of 6 million people fourth in its list of countries most affected by climate change.
“The variability of the climate is starting to become an almost normal process, with long periods of drought and then floods,” says Germán Quezada, a climate specialist at Centro Humboldt .. http://ibisnicaragua.org/contrapartes/centro-alexander-von-humboldt/ , a Managua-based NGO.
“The problem is that the usual pattern of cultivation has been thrown up in the air. People just aren’t sure when to plant or what to plant,” says Quezada. “Small farmers are the worst hit because they don’t have the resources or irrigation that the large farmers have.”
Counting the cost … coffee-growing in Matagalpa region, Nicaragua. Photograph: Oliver Balch
Nicaragua’s coffee industry is already counting the cost. The country’s second largest agricultural export earner registered losses of up to $60m in 2012-13 due to an outbreak of coffee leaf rust, which spread to 37% of the crop.
“Coffee leaf rust only used to affect farms below around 800 metres. With the changes in climate, we’re now seeing the disease reach as high as 1,300 metres,” says Santiago Dolmos, an agronomist with Cecocafen, a major coffee exporter.
Climate-friendly agriculture
“Treating these kind of losses as an emergency situation is not the answer. It has to be part of a longer-term development solution,” argues Azevedo.
For Nicaragua’s agribusiness lobby, such a solution lies in the greater use of chemicals and more advanced technological inputs. Upanic .. http://www.upanic.org.ni/ , for instance, an influential industry group, held the country’s first conference on agricultural biotechnology in October.
Environmental groups are pushing for a different approach, arguing that the best defence against climate change is a more diversified, more ecological approach to farming. Their arguments chime with Nicaragua’s strategy for food sovereignty and security .. http://www.magfor.gob.ni/descargas/SeguridadAlimentaria/Politica%20SSAN%20UV%20140509.pdf (pdf), which includes a law promoting organic and agro-ecological production.
“Large-scale agriculture isn’t the answer,” argues Rafael Henríquez, a spokesman for Oxfam Nicaragua .. https://www.theguardian.com/world/nicaragua . “Ironically, it’s the poorest farmers that are closest to the agro-ecological model, although it’s more through necessity than environmental conviction.”
The national roundtable for risk management in Nicaragua .. http://mngrnicaragua.org/ , an alliance of 20 smallholder organisations, is working to formalise these incipient, ad hoc efforts with research and training in best practice.
Nicaragua’s commitment to small-scale, ecological agriculture is by no means secure, says Martín Cuadra, a rural development expert at Simas, a Managua-based research institute and member of the roundtable. He points to loopholes in a proposed law on the registration of seeds that could open the door to genetically modified crops.
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