Alhassan Yunusah is a farmer at Dehia in Cape Coast who began full-time farming 15 years ago after quitting his job as a security man in Accra.

To him, while farming could be profitable, the realities of climate change was affecting farming and productivity negatively.

He is of the view that the lives of farmers can be better if “we are able to deal with these challenges efficiently”.

Aside from climate change which he said was affecting farmers in the country negatively, another important thing that needed to be looked at was the adoption of old farming methods that further reduced productivity.

“In the end we work hard and bring in little,” he stated. 

Agriculture and community livelihoods 

Farmers to a great extent work hard to ensure that there is enough food to sustain themselves, their families and communities.

However, in Ghana and indeed across the African Continent, farmers depend on the climate for how good a farming season would be.

Rainfall pattern is therefore critical to the success of the work of farmers across the country and the African continent as a whole.

Irrigation facilities are almost non-existent and understanding the climate and whatsoever changes in recent years is essential to production chain and its associated costs.

What is climate change?

Climate change means different things to different people.

To Monica Amonoo, a 60-year-old farmer who is into vegetables, cassava and potato farming at Mempeasem in Cape Coast for the past 40 years, climate change is the unpredictability of the seasons now.

She indicated that rainfall patterns have changed and that was what was affecting her work as a farmer.

“The sun burns hotter than it used to and the rainfall patterns have become more confusing and unpredictable. Now I continuously get little produce from my farm,” she explained.

Indeed, most of these farmers operate rain-dependent farms which are particularly vulnerable to erratic rainfall patterns influenced by a changing climate.

It is obvious that higher temperatures impact farmers’ crops by decreasing yields and increasing the possibility of pests and diseases.

Emmanuel Amponsah alias Adom is also a farmer with a passion to produce orange-fleshed potatoes known to have potency for many ailments.

However, a major problem he has is disease on the produce which he noted reduced productivity and in the end affected profit.

But in recent years, there is a rising determination from many of these farmers to work to adopt workable solutions to mitigate the impact of climate change of their work.

To this end, these farmers are working with institutions such as Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa (AICCRA) to manage and cope with the impact of climate change.

With support from agriculture experts and institutions, these farmers are slowly but steadily adopting new ways of making the best produce out of their farms in spite of climate change.

Farming and technology 

First is the adoption of technology to communicate weather patterns promptly to enable farmers to make informed farming decisions.

Agriculture officers, farmers and weather officials of the Ghana Meteorological Service among other stakeholders are on a WhatsApp platform that informs farmers about the weather patterns.

The initiative is to get climate information services including daily, weekly and seasonal forecasts readily to farmers across the country.

Broadcast 

Yunusah is in charge of the Dehia Information Centre which gives him opportunity to broadcast to the community.

He said every morning after receiving information on the weather on the platform, he informs farmers in the Dehia community about the weather through the community information centre.

He said the facility was also used to educate farmers on new technologies that helped them to improve their farms and increase their produce.

So far, Yunusah said the timely accessibility of such forecasts had been helpful.

“Knowledge is power and such knowledge of weather has empowered the farmers on when and what to plant,” he added.

To help tackle the challenges with pests, AICCRA is implementing the Early Warning and Rapid Response System (EWRRS) for the prevention, control and management of pests and diseases in the country. 

AICCRA also works together with farmers to produce a radio programme on weather information and seasonal forecast to farmers in the Central Region.

The initiative is being undertaken by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture in collaboration with the AICCRA project of the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) together with 10 other state and non-state institutions.

The institutions are the Plants Protection and Regulatory Services Directorate (PPRSD) of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Crop Research Institute (CRI), Savannah Agriculture Research Institute (SARI) and Institute for Scientific and Technological Information (INSTI), all of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research – Crop Research Institute (CSIR).

Others are the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission (GAEC), the Ghana Meteorological Agency (GMET), the Directorate of Agriculture Extension Services of MoFA, Farmer Line, a farm technology solutions institution, and the University for Development Studies (UDS).

“Education from AICCRA and agriculture officers are all communicated effectively through the information centre. We also have meetings where new technologies are explained to farmers,” Yunusah added.

AICCRA also has demonstration farms where new crop breeds and farming technologies are demonstrated to farmers.

To Ms Amonoo, the impact of such education had been different and impactful.

“My farms yield more produce now. We know that the seasons have changed and it is helpful that we have the knowledge to handle our farms to reduce poverty eventually,” she stated.

Other interventions 

To tackle the issue of pest, the AICCRA project taught the farmers to adopt organic methods to control pests using Neem leaf powder.

This has greatly enhanced productivity and increased yields among potatoes and vegetable farmers in the region.

A Communication Specialist with AICCRA, Reginald Ofori Kyere, said AICCRA was also promoting the use of improved drought, pest and disease tolerant and early maturing maize varieties for the farmers as part of measures to help farmers reduce the impact of climate change.

Ready markets, value addition 

The farmers are now calling for ready markets for their produce as well as support for value addition.

Benjamin Amoah, an agriculture extension officer, said many of the farmers were beginning to understand the need to adapt new ways  of undertaking agriculture to maximise output.

“We understand the challenges and we are working to ensure that farmers are equipped with appropriate low cost techniques and knowledge of effective ways to farm in the face of climate change,” he stated.

Yunusah is confident farmers with the right knowledge could ensure food security.

“We have a charge to live well, take care of our families and feed the community as farmers. Farming is a business. We can only be profitable if we understand the climate well and its relation to what we do. We need not hold on to the old practices that left us with little.

According to Ghana’s Country Climate and Development Report, without prompt global and local climate actions, higher temperatures and heat stress would affect crop, livestock and labour productivity. 

It was estimated that in 2020, the country’s direct economic loss from drought was at $95 million USD. 

Experts predict that climate change impact could cause rainfall to decline a further 12 per cent from 2020 levels by 2050, causing an average direct economic loss of $325 million USD per year by 2050.

With the propagation and adoption of climate change resolute solutions, it is possible the effects of climate change can be reduced significantly.

Source: GraphicOnline