Durban climate change conference: why farming is the biggest issue for Africa

Africa is a continent where 70 per cent of people depend on rain-fed agriculture as a primary food source. With scientists predicting an increase in the frequency and severity of droughts like this year's in the Horn of Africa - the worst in six decades - it's clear that climate change poses a growing threat to food security.   

For this reason, advocates and civil society groups are campaigning for the upcoming United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which starts in Durban, South Africa on November 28, to have a firm emphasis on agriculture.

 If this 17th Conference of the Parties (COP-17) goes anything like the last three meetings in Bali, Copenhagen, and most recently, Cancun, not much will come in the way of carbon reduction targets, which is the main focus.

Developed and developing countries are gridlocked over committing to target reductions of greenhouse gases and a renewal of the Kyoto protocol.

However, campaigners are hoping that agriculture can become a major part of the climate change dialogue at COP-17, as it has been noticeably absent before. They say a scheme similar to the one ratified at COP-15 in Coppenhagen to address the carbon emissions made by...

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