“Assalamu alaikum Ndugu’’I said.
 
“Alaikum assalam,What can I get you  lady? delighted he replied with a smile.
 
I want onions, I said he smiled and looked down
 
‘’Let me be honest with you, you may not like what you hear but the price had dramatically changed since the last time you were here. It’s now 5,000 per kilo. At Mtwara a kilo is now 6000/= so be grateful. I am a honest business man’’ noted Hamisi with a serious voice.
 
I gasped ‘’What? really! I said looking at very tiny ill looking onions. I can’t say they were in bad shape so far, they were better than the other I have seen as I walked in the market.
 
He handed me over a plastic bowl and told me to choose for myself. As I was choosing two more women came in and had the same reaction as I did. After I had my bowl half full, I took to Hamisi for weighing. I decided to try understand what drives the onion prices.
 
“It’s like every other month we have food of the month whose price spikes. Few months tomatoes were like diamond now they are very cheap. Will we experience the same with onions? Why are they (onions) expensive? i asked
 
“My dear, climate change is upon us. We have floods everywhere and the worst part is onions don’t like much water. It’s not like rice padding, onions require enough sunshine and dryness to produce. Buckle up things will get worse not only in onions. Many food crops require water moderately. And, with the corona virus limiting our movement food prices will balloon. Farmers have had a really beatdown and we will feel it too’’.
 
‘’Is this the first time we are facing floods?’’ I asked curiously
 

“No, but now it’s severe. we can’t be naive the weather changes like women’s fashion. We can’t even predict what will be next even by looking at the skies. When I was a young man this is a rainy season now look how many times has it rained since January. We need to listen to the changes. I think it’s a message. Your organization teaches people about climate change I think we should listen’’ said Hamisi looking concerned.
 
Well, glad to hear you pay attention we should act NOW I said as I paid and left to allow him to serve other customers.
 
As I unpacked my basket, I began to think of my discussion with Hamisi. In most African dishes’ onion is a key ingredient. We can so much do without tomatoes by substituting it with carrots or pawpaw. But Onions are irreplaceable and so is food in general.
 
 I stopped for a moment to wonder what next, which food price will rise? How our lives will be changed and how we will cope. And how much we are prepared especially in remote areas where we have limited food surplus. Where most food production is for the household consumption and few remaining for income generation.
 
I asked myself how many people are like Hamisi and can connect the dots between climate change and our food systems. Are we aware that if we don’t address climate crisis now there will be no food on our tables?
 
Climate crisis put a strain on food production and how we relate to nature. Our means to produce food has to change. This can mean change at individual household in how we produce food and store it cutting down food wastage. We can adopt small scale food production by adopting kitchen garden and revisit our traditional food storage mechanism. I recall when I was young my people will dry almost all type of food during abundancy. This will weather us through the uncertainty and promote nutrition for our families, save money with lesser damage to nature.