Women farmers key to Liberia climate change debate

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Monrovia: On the outskirts of Monrovia, the Liberian capital, in the town of Jah Tondo, I recently saw for myself the real impact of climate change in a tropical developing country.

Jah Tondo is in the lower Western Cluster region of Liberia. Many of the local farms which have always produced rice, the nation’s staple food, have been abandoned because the searing heat has simply destroyed the fertility of the land.

When delegates meet at the United Nations climate change summit, they try to pursue their common target: how to tackle the warming climate confronting them all.

“In the past we farmed in keeping with a familiar seasonal pattern. But things have changed. When we think we should be planting, harvesting or resting, in fact it’s the opposite, because of the climate.”

- Mrs. Agnes Kortimai
Executive Director, Zorzor District Women’s Care

http://womennewsnetwork.net/2010/01/21/women-farmers-88/