Too much rain, too little rain
It has been a very wet start to the year in the UK. In the Cornish village of Cardinham it rained every day for 50 consecutive days according to the Met Office.
For many of us, the persistently grey skies have simply been wearying (thank goodness that the sun has started to appear again). For British farmers, the consequences are more serious. Fields have been submerged for weeks. Crops that were planted with care now risk rotting in the ground.
And yet, at the same time, colleagues in East Africa were telling me something quite different. The rains still hadn’t come. They should have arrived weeks earlier. Drought was being declared in different counties. Maize and wheat crops were failing and farmers were cutting withered crops into livestock feed to salvage some value.
Too much rain here. Not enough rain there. They are both different faces of a single narrative. As a Nottinghamshire farmer, Jon Hammond, told the BBC, "You've got to accept that the weather is becoming more volatile, it's becoming more extreme, the extremes are lasting for longer.”
Restoring Shamiloli Forest, Kakamega Rainforest, Kenya
We cannot control when or where the rain falls. But we can help landscapes cope with that volatility.
In mountainous parts of East Africa, much of ITF’s work focuses on restoring the natural systems that regulate water. Afromontane forests slow rainfall down. They help water soak into the soil and release it gradually over time.
When I last visited the region, Wycliffe, our Africa Programme Manager, showed me a stream flowing steadily at a time of year when it had previously run dry. Without forest cover, rainwater rushes down bare slopes, quickly swelling rivers in the lowlands before disappearing into the ocean. Months later, those same rivers run low or run dry. Restoration changes that pattern. It helps water move more slowly and flow more consistently. “We want the water to crawl down the hills, not run” Wycliffe told me.
Training on Zai pits in Kitui County, Kenya with our partner KDC
In semi-arid Eastern Kenya, I saw another pragmatic response to erratic rains. Working with local partners, ITF has been training families to create ‘Zai pits’ on their farms. These small, hand-dug basins are filled with manure or compost and mulch. They capture rainfall, concentrate nutrients and provide protected planting holes for crops. The result is stronger yields, even in difficult seasons.
This is practical climate action. It strengthens livelihoods and builds resilience in landscapes already under pressure.
There is work to do – step by step, tree by tree, community by community. And it is work we will continue, come rain or shine.
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