Impacts from climate change on Karen local people’s livelihood

Wednesday, September 15, 2011

Climate change does not only affect one place or one area. It is happening in every place around the world.  As weather patterns become more erratic due to climate change, local people’s livelihoods are negatively impacted. As a result  villagers in Karen state will face huge problems for their survival.

In 2010 in Karen State and in neighboring countries the weather was extremely hot and dry. Farmers faced serious difficulties and loss because they could not plant their paddies due to the low rainfall.  Many families could not even get enough clean water to drink, cook with or wash.  The drought forced many farmers to abandon their fields and search for work elsewhere.  Villagers had to leave their farms behind and work as labourers for other farmers who were still able to grow crops in order to get an income and food for their families.

However, this year the rains came much earlier than usual.  Farmers did not have enough time to clear and burn the ground in preparation for their rice crops.   In one village in Luthaw township of Mutraw District more than 30 farmers in could not grow their crops as the ground was not dry enough to burn and clear.

Saw Klae Mu, one of the villagers, reported that "the ground was not dry enough to burn, there was no point in clearing the land."

Another villager said "I hurried to burn my farm when it was dry for a couple of days but the problem was that the ground was not dry enough to burn.  Some of the farmland we could clear but when we could not, we have to leave the land."

Saw Maw Daw, another local villager said "Last year it was dry and hot, my rice plants almost dried up. I could only get 50 baskets of rice from my farm. I have many children and the rice I got from my farm was not enough for my family. As I didn’t have enough money to buy food, I had to work for daily wages to get some money. Some places where I worked were far and I had to walk for many days. My family who stayed behind ran out of rice so they had to eat either boiled rice or bamboo shoots.”

He continued, "last year it was so dry that I could not grow rice properly but this year the situation is worse. I am certain that my family and I will face more extreme problems with hunger than last year."

Each year more and more farmers from all over Karen State have been reporting food shortages due to the unpredictable and irregular changes in the weather as well as other factors like insect, disease and rat outbreaks that many believe to be linked to conditions that occurred less frequently in the past .  Thuleikawwei