View Document: 230720 Dove 1 Sogomie Training 1 Ecological Agriculture-Climate Change Adaptation

CDWAI Team Members David and Anna Kulimbao facilitated this 2 day Workshop with members of the Sogomie Fresh Food Producers Group of Safanaka Village in July 2023. The area was already experiencing an unusually long dry season which had started with poor rainfall in the last 3 months of the normal rains. The participants related their experiences of watching their gardens wilt, with the loss of expected yields and how they had tried to maintain family food security and cash crop production.

A basic explanation of how climate change disrupts the expected seasonal weather and causes the extreme weather events of climate forcing was offered and discussed. The core strategies of adapting to climate change were offered as:

Protecting and preserving their garden land, especially topsoil

Restoring and building soil fertility through agroforestry, mulching and manuring and 

Always planting the preferred and proven drought resistant food crops for their area. 

Several new crops were demonstrated, the value of legumes for adding nitrogen to the soil and how root nodules are important for this was also presented, including helping the group members recognize and identify local native and introduced legumes.