Defeating the Effects of Flooding: FSRP Empowers Rural Farmers to Mitigate Climate Change Impacts

The effects of climate change have been a global challenge, considerably affecting all sectors in different ways. In Sierra Leone, climate change has become a nightmare for farmers, with its effects tremendously threatening farming efforts. Bush fire, flooding and deadly heat waves, among others, are the common climate change events that variedly affect farmers in Sierra Leone, causing degraded farmlands, depleted vegetations, soil nutrient loss, and crop loss. This has largely contributed to the low productivity suffered in the Sierra Leone’s agriculture ecosystem, with its effects rippling on food security efforts ultimately heightening hunger and poverty among the rural population.

Over the last decade, the Government of Sierra Leone has tried addressing this menace as the population increasingly demonstrate the need for timely, reliable, well-focused, and impactful messages to introduce measures of adaptation and mitigation. This effort has not proven laudable, hence infinitesimal impact demonstrated. With deliberate attempt to strengthen digital advisory services for agriculture and food crisis prevention and management in Sierra Leone, FSRP revived the early warning systems in the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security to provide timely information on weather patterns, including rainfall, wind, and temperature, allowing farmers to prepare for extreme weather events. Through dedicated WhatsApp platforms, about 150,000 value chain actors including smallholders were reached with early warning messages between 2023 and 2024, to include climate smart agriculture and choice of agro ecologies for specific crop production, encouraging the farmers to shift from slash-and-burn farming in the upland ecologies to engaging lowland ecologies, doing early planting in riverine ecologies for early maturation of crops, or partly shifting from cultivation of riverine ecologies with flood planes to already-cultivated mangroves and boli lands to reduce vulnerability to flooding.  Indeed, these interventions have proven worthwhile as they demonstrate their relevance in tackling challenges of the unprecedented flooding in the 2024 production season. See farmers testimonies:

Salima Fatu Bangura, 35-yrs, a rice farmer in Tornya, Kambia district, recalls the devastation caused by unexpected floods in the past: "In 2019, we lost nearly half of our rice fields to flooding because we had no warning. But with FSRP's early warning messages, we now know when to plant and when to expect heavy rains. This year, I harvested 80 bags of rice — double what I produced last year — because I was able to prepare ahead of time and the flooding that occurred did not affect my farm."

Maurice Paul Stevens, 42, a farmer in Timdale, Moyamba District, highlights the benefits of climate-smart agriculture: "During every major flood, we lose part of our farm fields to the flooding. FSRP encouraged us to utilize our existing mangroves farms and reduce the cutting down of mangrove trees along the belt of the farmland. They also advised that we minimize the use of riverine flood planes. Despite heavy rains this year, my yields increased exponentially. The messages have really helped us and prepared us to plant early before the floods arrived."

FSRP is poised to continue transforming the lives of rural farmers, enabling them to adapt to the challenges of climate change. By integrating early warning systems, climate-smart agriculture, and crisis preparedness planning, the program is not only safeguarding food security but also empowering communities to build resilience and thrive in the face of threats and shocks.