Project to improve food security underway
A project aimed at helping to improve food security in the country is underway in the country.
Advertisement
The project, titled “Enhancing the adaptation of smallholder farmers, especially women, to climate change for improved agricultural production in Ghana,” is also aimed at improving the living standards of smallholder farmers by helping them to adapt to the effects of climate change.
At a workshop in Accra last Thursday to fashion out policy action on climate change as part of the project, participants called on policy makers to have an increased understanding of the impact of climate change on small-holder agricultural productivity in the food production regions of the country.
The project, which is being undertaken in the Afram Plains, Northern Region, Accra Plains and the Volta Region, all classified as the bread baskets of the country, will use surveys, meetings, workshops and reviews to help increase understanding among policy makers of the impacts of climate change on smallholder agricultural productivity in the four areas.
The workshop
The workshop is being organised by the Alliance for Green Revolution Africa (AGRA) and the Science and Technology Policy Research Institute (STEPRI) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). It brought together policy makers, academicians, researchers and some smallholder farmers.
At the workshop, stakeholders in the agriculture industry were called upon to help improve food security among smallholder farmers by enhancing their adaptation to climate change.
According to the participants, climate change and weather variability had negative impacts on agricultural productivity and rural livelihoods in the country.
A consultant on climate change, Professor Alfred Oteng Yeboah, said it was the desire of researchers to create an enabling environment to ensure the well-being of people through food and nutritional security.
Other Trending Stories
He said it was only through the establishment of a policy on food security that there could be food security in the country.
Call for innovations
The Deputy Director of the STEPRI, Dr George Essegbey, called for innovations and strategies that would help farmers to adapt to the negative effects of climate change in the country.
He said although the coastal areas of the country were part of the highest food production areas in the country, they were one of the poorest regions in the country and mentioned Cape Coast as an example of one of the four poorest areas in the country.
The Head of Land and Environmental Policy, AGRA, Dr Evelyn Nambiru-Mwaura, said AGRA’s goal was to ensure that small-holder farmers had better livelihoods to get out of poverty.
The AGRA-Ghana Country Director, Dr Kwasi Ampofo, said men and women had varying abilities to adapt to climate shocks, and therefore, stressed the need to fashion out appropriate policies to meet their needs.
Giving an overview of the project, Dr Nelson Obiri-Opare said the project was on course to help fill gaps in policy requirements on climate change in the country.
By Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho/Daily Graphic/Ghana
Writer's Email: rebecca.quaicoe-duho@graphic.com.gh