Two months on - what’s next for Tanzanian farmers devastated by flooding?

Floods in Rufiji, Tanzania, in April this year. Photo from our team in Tanzania.

April saw East Africa hit hard by record breaking rains, with communities losing lives, homes, and incomes due to huge floods. So far, 200,000 people and more than 51,000 households are affected by the disaster.

Tanzania’s Prime Minister, Kassim Majaliwa, urged families remaining in flood prone areas to leave them if at all possible. At least 155 people have died due to floods and landslides in Tanzania, following heavy rains caused by El Niño, which worsens extreme weather - and has also contributed to the record temperatures seen across South Asia. Climate models suggest that El Niño events will become more frequent and more intense as a result of the climate crisis.

The Rufiji district of Tanzania, where Transform Trade has worked for a many years, is one of the regions hardest hit by the flooding. People living there are largely reliant on small scale agriculture, growing crops both for food and to sell to support their families. For the farmers in Tanzania we work alongside, the scale of loss caused by flooding is only just becoming apparent.

Food

Right now, many farmers are having to rely on imported food, which comes at a high cost, while they wait for the next planting season. There are concerns that the region may face an increase in food prices, and possible shortages.

One of the major impacts of flooding for farmers is the loss of good quality soil, leaving farmland barren and drastically reducing the both the quality and quantity of crops grown. It can take a long time for agricultural production to recover, and this puts communities at a long-term risk of hunger as food supplies dwindle. Food insecurity is a serious concern - people need to find alternative sources of income.

Transport

Since the flooding has caused significant damage to roads and bridges, transport and travel is challenging. Many farmers can’t access markets due to high water levels and infrastructure damage, causing further losses for those with poor storage facilities as they cannot store the produce for future markets.

But there are pockets of hope among the bad news.

Farmers working with Transform Trade now have multiple income streams and so the process of rebuilding is looking more positive. Beekeeping, fruit production, and keeping poultry, for example, have suffered less impact from the flooding.

Communities we work alongside also have access to early warning weather systems, and received messages making them aware of what was going to happen. In general they were not as severely affected by the flooding due to advance knowledge based on weather forecasts, rainfall and upstream water levels. This helped them trigger deployment of portable flood defences, or temporarily relocate and salvage any crops or livestock they could. We hope to extend this scheme more widely in future.

The bigger issue

Unfortunately, climate problems are here to stay - and smallholder farmers are underrepresented in the conversations that could protect them in the long term.

Transform Trade is working alongside communities to help them prepare for future flooding, and to make sure that their voices are heard at a local government level, so they can advocate for measures that reduce the impact of climate shocks in the future.

Without big picture change, and support to adapt to increasingly extreme weather patterns, farmers will continue to face the brunt of the climate crisis - leading to increased food insecurity for everyone.

Tanzania is just the latest example of an issue that is repeated all across the world.