Fighting Climate Change: What Northern Farmers’ Can Learn From The Upper Regions

Farmers in the Upper West and Upper East Regions of Ghana contribute negatively to the destruction of the natural environment; nonetheless they are also conscious of ensuring that it is not completely depleted by their actions because of posterity.

Like everywhere in the northern part of the country, farmers in these regions engage in felling of trees, charcoal production and bush burning among others but with some form of moderation. 

For instance, farmers mostly depend on dead trees for fuel wood and charcoal production and not life ones. In some situations, they prune the branches of older trees for fuel and for building purposes and not cutting them down completely for usage. This practice allows the trees to flourish again for future purposes. 

Indeed, in most parts of the Upper West Region, bush burning has been banned for several years particularly in the Nandom Traditional Area. Persons caught engaging in the act are arrested immediately by anti-bushfire volunteers put in place by traditional councils and fined or punished severely. In the Upper East Region, the Bongo District has been rewarded on several occasions for their unflinching support towards anti-bush burning. 

Even though a greater percentage of the farmers in the aforementioned regions are not educated, they know what it takes for one to become a successful farmer, thus doing farming alongside animal husbandry for them, is the best means of ensuring good yields and for that matter, bumper harvest. They make very good use of the droppings of their animals in their farming business so long as they are confined.

All communities within the two regions where crop farming is a major source of livelihood are per bylaws passed by their Traditional Councils or otherwise, compelled to arrest all ruminants during every rainy season and confine them till farming and harvesting is over, before the animals are released.

These bylaws are often re-enforced after the third rainfall (depending on where one is located) through announcements by all traditional rulers of the various communities. The announcements at times end with a note of caution that sounds like this: “Anyone who refuses to confine his/her ruminants and allow them to destroy the crops of any farmer risk losing them through lynching by the farm owner or could be fined by the traditional council.”  

The strict adherence to confining animals during the farming season in these regions is to protect their crop plants from being destroyed by the animals. Besides, they also get manure to apply on their farms through the animal droppings.

Unlike the Upper West and Upper East Regions, the Northern Region is one area where indiscriminate felling of trees, reckless bush burning, increased charcoal production and the deliberate straying of domestic animals is very rampant.

Apart from the Gonjaland area where farmers confine their animals during the farming season, those in the rest of the Northern Region let loose their animals to wander about. 

Despite the fact that the effects of desertification and climate change are staring in the faces of residents of the Northern Region, the people still have a very bad attitude towards proper environmental management perhaps due to lack of education or indiscipline.  

In each farming season, most farmers go about cutting younger trees especially neem trees and others that are still struggling to mature, and use them to fence their farmlands in order to ward off animals from destroying their crop plants. This is aside felling bigger trees including shea trees as fuel wood and for charcoal production particularly in the Dagbon and Gonjaland areas where the practice has reached its crescendo. 

Besides, many farmers also use wires obtained from burnt car tyres to do the fencing, a practice that is encouraging more people to burn car tyres for the wires which is a source of livelihood for them.

So, just imagine that in the Northern Region an average farmer has about five acres of farmlands and has to fence all of them with sticks obtained by felling or destroying smaller trees. This means that millions of younger trees are cut down each year just for fencing farmlands.

Burning car tyres also lead to the emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) which is a major threat to the ozone layer. According to Wikipedia, the ozone layer is a layer in Earth's atmosphere which contains relatively high concentrations of ozone (O₃). This layer absorbs 97–99% of the Sun's high frequency ultraviolet light, which is potentially damaging to the life forms on Earth.  Scientists say, the ultraviolet rays can cause skin cancer if the ozone layer is completely eaten up by CO2. CO2 gas is also the cause of global warming as well as climate change which is seriously affecting rainfall patterns.

There is no denying the fact that high incidence of bush burning, indiscriminate felling of trees for fuel or charcoal production, fencing of farmlands, among others in most parts of Northern Ghana especially in the Northern Region are seriously contributing to the low and erratic rainfalls, rising temperatures/hot weather, drought and low yields in crop production. For instance, available statistics at the Ministry of Food and Agriculture showed that there had been rainfall variation in the North in recent years. The average rainfall figures from 2004 to 2010 were 1243.24, 1066.79, 822.50, 672.61, 829.89, 865.44 and 364.85 millimetres, respectively.

The Savannah Accelerated Development Authourity (SADA) under its forestry programme has started planting thousands of tree plants in many parts of the North. The goal for this initiative is to combat desertification and climate change owing to the occurrence of negative environmental practices being perpetrated by residents.

Ahead of this beautiful initiative by SADA, the Ghana Environmental Management Programme (GEMP) which is being implemented in three regions of the North and seeking to combat desertification would fizzle out. Under this programme, thousands of tree seedlings such as cashew and mango have been planted in beneficiary regions.

 

But this cannot be a success when most environmental laws are not being enforced by the government. Therefore, in order to ensure that the phenomenon is addressed, there is the need for government through all Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies in the Northern Region as well as the two Upper Regions, to as a matter of priority and urgency, enforce all environmental bylaws in their respective jurisdictions. Anyone caught breaking such laws should be prosecuted and punished severely to serve as deterrent to others.