The resilience of the peasantry is legendary. Subsistence farmers don't surrender to adversities. They always look forward to the next season, even after consecutive partial or total crop failures.
The peasantry is a social category that rarely idles even when rains fail. For them any harvest from overused land is a godsend, no matter how far below expectations it falls.
Ambition is not in their vocabulary – survival is. But this survival is under threat from land degradation and unpredictable rainfall patterns. Rains come too little too late to support traditional peasant habits.
Sometimes the skies open up floodgates to pour cats and dogs. Then it floods. The peasant farmer survives at the mercy of droughts and floods, scarcity and plenty.
Subsistence farmers have learnt to live with what the once-upon-a-time generous nature provides. When there is generous provision, they say, 'Alleluia!' When there is a harvest, no matter how low, subsistence farmers also say, it's the will of God.
Fatalism, this celebration of predestination, requires urgent mindset transformation. God has been constant throughout the ages. Climate change is a consequence of centuries of unsustainable energy and land use, destructive lifestyles, and reckless patterns of production.
These contradictions – plenty and scarcity, floods and droughts, chilling colds, and wildfires – need planned production management. They call for adaptation, at costs that are beyond the reach of subsistence farmers.
The solution is not handouts, pay bill for public donations to victims of climate change, or pleading with international partners to donate relief food. The perennial beggar-bowl habit dehumanises.
December starts on a degrading mode for the hardworking citizens of the lake region. For the first time, they have been invited to queue for food rations.
Villagers in Suna West constituency, Migori county, stretched out for the dole at God Kwer. The irony is pointed: God Kwer means the mountain of the hoe. The hoe is the tested, dominant tool for subsistence farmers.
The hungry in Karachuonyo constituency, the home of the legendary pioneer freedom fighter Ojijo Oteko, in Homa Bay county, carried their bowls for rations at Rakwaro chief’s camp.
Fisherfolk of Mfangano Island, Suba North constituency, Homa Bay county, were served at Sena Airstrip.
The hungry of Alego Usonga constituency, Siaya county, got their handouts at Awelo open grounds. The proud residents of Kisumu West constituency lined up for the dole at Korando A chief’s office. People of Nyakach constituency, Kisumu county, were at Nyongonga Primary School to receive relief food.
Dependency perpetuates vulnerability to adversities. Changing weather patterns call for sustainable responses.
Investment in water harvesting and storage, especially along the 12 or more dry gullies in Midwest Karachuonyo, can turn water and food insecurity into surpluses beyond Homa Bay.
This huge investment, however, requires the planned input of the national government and multilateral development partners.
Climate change is synonymous with adaption, resilience and mitigation.
Resilience is the ability to recover from or to mitigate vulnerability to climate-related shocks such as floods and droughts. It is a process that strengthens the ability to recover from risks and adapt to changing weather patterns.
The Sixth Assessment Report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change defines resilience as, "The capacity of social, economic and ecosystems to cope with a hazardous event or trend or disturbance, responding or reorganising in ways that maintain their essential function, identity and structure as well as biodiversity in case of ecosystems while also maintaining the capacity for adaptation, learning and transformation."
