Regional journalists urged on climate

REGIONAL REPORTERS have been urged to be actively involved in educating communities, especially farmers, on the effects of climate change and the best ways to adapt to them.The call was made Wednesday by Uganda’s State minister for Water and Environment, Flavia Munaaba, while opening the first ever Eastern and Southern Africa Climate Change Media Network Forum.The forum in Kampala, organised by the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa), in conjunction with the Network of Climate Journalists of the Greater Horn of Africa, ends today.Munaaba said: “Climate change affects the poor within our societies, whose only source of income is the soil. Yet most of these people have no idea of what they can do to adapt to climate change.“Here is where you should come in to let our people, especially the poor, understand that climate change is real and that something can be done to adapt. Help them understand that days of being at the mercy of rain makers are gone and that days of practical solutions are in.”She called upon journalists to make use of available technologies to ensure that well-packaged information on adapting to climate change and mitigation are disseminated and reaches the grassroots.Munaaba said to tackle the effects of climate change, people need to act as one team while seeking solutions to challenges brought about by the changes in weather patterns. Dr Francis Mugoya, a climate change expert, said the effects of climate change are being felt across the globe and in all sectors.He singled out the adoption of irrigation, reforestation, and adoption of higher yielding crop varieties, biotechnology and organic farming, among others, as strategies that can help farmers cope with the new climatic patterns.At the function, governments were also urged to adopt early warning mechanisms to notify citizens whenever there is a predictable danger.

National

Regional journalists urged on climate