Climate change impact on food and nutrition security

“I think climate change is when the harmattan is very strong and we can’t even talk for fear that our lips will crack,” a female respondent from Gurigo explained.

This is one of the many responses that showed researcher Patience Atitsogbey, that there is really a low awareness of climate change in the Bongo District of the Upper East Region of Ghana. Being a region that has 94.7 per cent of its population engaged in agriculture, accurate awareness of climate change, its causes and adaptive strategies to avert its harsh consequences is a necessity.

The researcher set out with an objective to examine the impact of climate change on food and nutrition security of households with emphasis on women and children below the age of five in the Bongo District. With funding from Africa Climate Change Adaptation Initiative (ACCAI) and the Open Society Foundation (OSF) she conducted a cross-sectional survey using mixed methods in four farming communities namely Anaafobiisi, Bogrigo, Gurigo and Gowrie which were purposively selected.

This research is deserving of attention among the myriad of issues on Ghana’s portfolio of concerns, reason being globally, public health is faced with “unacceptable risks” due to changing climate.

“Already, poor nutrition resulting from insufficient food consumption is accounting for three million deaths each year in the most vulnerable regions in the world”, World Health Organisation(WHO) has said, “Increasing temperatures and rainfall variability are expected to decrease crop yields, and further exacerbate food security.”

According to the World Food Programme (WFP) these extreme weather events are capable of destroying farm produce, important community infrastructure, depreciating livelihoods and worsening poverty. Evidentially, the production of major staple crops such as maize, rice, millet, yam and groundnut have been affected and keeps dwindling, especially for rural dwellers who depend mainly on agriculture as a means of livelihood, women and children being the most disadvantaged. The increasing challenge of rural-urban migration is also significant due to the impact of these changing weather patterns.

A male resident of Anaafobisii lamented, “When I was young, we farmed with joy because you would harvest plenty and nobody would go hungry till another farming season. Now I’m 62 years, when you farm, you get just a little so how can I seriously farm.”

As part of the research, rainfall and temperature data for the past 30 years was obtained from the Ghana Meteorological Services for the district. A review of the Ministry of Agriculture (MOFA) records on crop yields spanning a period of 21 years in the district was also looked at. The Ghana Health Service in the district also assisted in the process of the work.

Climate change primarily refers to variations in the weather due to natural and human causes. Some of these causes include wildfires, floods, deforestation, cyclones and greenhouse gas emissions. Records show that human activities have significantly contributed to the global warming since the mid-twentieth century; and Africa and for that matter, Ghana, is among the worst hit globally by the adversity thereof. The Ghana Agriculture Workers Union (GAWU) has confirmed that the country is already experiencing the impact of the weather extremes as there are extended drier and hotter days during the dry seasons and more floods during the rainy seasons. Residents in the Bongo District alluded to this during the research.

“The time I was a child, I never experienced much heat than it is now. Now there is too much heat but little rainfall,” bewailed a female respondent from Gowrie.

Northern Ghana is that part of the nation that is most susceptible to the erratic weather pattern caused by climatic alterations according to several research findings. This writer’s research in the Bongo District indeed confirmed that rainfall has been decreasing at 0.3mm per annum while maximum temperature has been increasing at 0.005°C with tangible implications on crop yield. For instance, in 2011, a decrease in rainfall from about 90mm to about 62mm resulted in a corresponding decrease in rice yields from 2.8 tonnes/hectare to about 1.9 tonnes/hectare.

Experiences

A resident of Gurigo complained, “Now we keep shifting the sowing time because you don’t know when the rain will come, it delays and stops early too.”

Even though many inhabitants in the district have observed these extreme weather patterns, they lack a clear understanding of the phenomenon. Whereas some imagine climate change to be changes in the moon, others attribute spiritual reasons to climate change and its causes.

A resident of Anaafobiisi said, “It is the changes that occur in the moon. Sometimes the moon is dark other times it is bright.”
Another person professed, "Climate change is caused by human behaviour which has made God angry. Some years ago, it was a taboo to have sex in an open space. But now people often do it outside. This has made God to punish us by changing the climate."

Even some agricultural extension officers were uncertain in their responses. “Hmmm I know the climate has to do with the weather but I don’t know if I can say climate change is the change in the weather,” said an agricultural extension officer.

Notwithstanding, other technical officers are abreast of the subject and clearly articulated their responses to enquiries made.

“…it is rainfall, temperatures, humidity and so forth. Climate change of an area therefore is the variation or the change in those things that I already mentioned and how it has changed over the period of 30 years,” a meteorological officer from Bolgatanga clarified.

Since these climatic changes impact negatively on the nutrition security of Ghanaians, it is, incumbent upon the responsible officers of our nation to explore pragmatic coping and adaptive strategies that can avert the hardships, and disseminate these strategies to the populace, especially those involved directly in agriculture. Pangaribow et al described nutrition security as when the food consumed by a person is safe and nutritionally sufficient and used biologically to maintain good health and physical work throughout all stages of life.

The findings from the Bongo District indicate that an overwhelming majority 99.2 per cent of households are food insecure. Participants who reported a decrease in rainfall were more likely to be food insecure. Also, from her study, it appears more children (82.8 per cent ) have anaemia than women (18.7 per cent). Whereas a lot of children under five years of age were either stunted (42.3 per cent), underweight (24.4 per cent) or wasted (17.5 per cent), the women tended to be overweight (24 per cent ) and obese (nine per cent), with only five per cent being underweight as compared to the children.

In the face of the difficulties posed by climate change on the Bongo District, residents have adopted indigenous strategies to cope with the situation. The coping strategy adopted by majority (89.4 per cent) of people studied is to reduce quality and quantity of food consumed.

“We do not eat full bowls of tuo zaafi again; the women cut it down so that everybody can get some to eat,” one male respondent whimpered.

On the flipside, others deny themselves of morning and afternoon meals and eat only in the evenings. Significantly, some crops such as millet, maize, rice and sweet potatoes are currently being less consumed due to the effects of climate change. Also, a greater number of the families preserve food by drying them in the sun.