February is set to become the driest on record with just 0.6mm of rain recorded thus far, overtaking the previous record in 2016 when 2.4mm was measured. Crops that rely on rainwater, such as wheat, are facing a crisis.

Farmers recognise that climate change and the consequent extremes in weather are the cause of their woes. February 2018 was remarkably wet in Malta with 181.4mm of rain (the wettest since 1938 and the second wettest on record), while a year ago the Maltese islands were battered by one of the most powerful storms ever.

This is a global challenge. Most climate scientists agree that a warmer world will lead to the same phenomena appearing more frequently and in more violent form. Other regions in Europe, Asia and Africa are experiencing floods, droughts, crop failures and insect infestation. According to a study by researchers at Newcastle University in 2018, Malta and Gozo will be worst affected by drought and heatwaves. As Malta is already hot and dry, it is particularly vulnerable to the longer, hotter drought-prone results that a changing climate is bringing.

All the climate research highlights the urgent need globally to adapt people’s way of living to cope with these future conditions. Whether we like it or not, Malta faces the same challenges. The acceleration of climate change is sweeping away the near-perfect climate to which we have become accustomed. As the Newcastle University study has indicated, climate change threatens the basic elements of life: access to water, food production, health, use of land, the environment itself.

The biggest impact will be in exacerbating our problems with our water table, which is not being replenished quickly enough. Lack of water and moisture in the soil and rising sea levels are leading to increased salinity. Crop yields are being diminished and the process of Maltese desertification may  become unstoppable.

The estimated 150 remaining full-time farmers are facing an existential threat to their future livelihoods which requires short-term as well as long-term government intervention. Malta has little choice but to take action, particularly in the short term, to mitigate the impact on the small farming community.

Groundwater still contributes most of the water used, especially for agricultural purposes. There is a pressing need for the government to invest in water recycling and rainwater harvesting schemes to encourage farmers to be self-sufficient, rather than resorting, as now, to expensive private groundwater extraction.

The objective should be to ensure that Malta’s farming industry is revived, not destroyed forever. The government should start preparing now by designing long-term adaptation and mitigation plans to cope with the effects of climate change. This includes drawing up a comprehensive water policy framework plan to ensure the survival of the mean sea level aquifer and developing comprehensive mitigation and adaptability plans to protect the farming community.

But the issue goes beyond just farming – important as this is. It entails cross-sector sustainability planning, a viable rural policy that protects farmers’ land, as well as imaginative plans to adapt to climate change by examining a range of options from building more desalination plants, constructing sea defences and possibly also obliging farmers to switch to drought resistant crops.

It is in Malta’s vital economic interest to make changes. If the government procrastinates it will merely make future measures more extreme and more expensive.