Savelugu-Nanton MCE Cautions Citizens Against Bush Burning

Savelugu-Nanton MCE

The Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for Savelugu-Nanton, Abdulai Alhassan Red, has served a very strong warning to people who are fond of engaging in indiscriminate bush burning during the dry season to stop the practice, because “it is unbiblical, unkoranic and untraditional”.

He said since the practice is not enshrined in the Holy Bible and Holy Quran and neither a practice of traditionalists, there is no justification whatsoever for any citizen to engage in wanton destruction of the natural environment through bush fire.

“The best way to farm and to improve upon the yields of your crops is to allow the grass and leaves of trees to get rotten and dissolve into the soil” Mr. Abdulai said this at a climate change adaptation learning forum organised by the Regional Advisory Information and Network Systems (RAINS) in Savelugu.

The forum forms part of the implementation of: “Climate Change Adaptation in Northern Ghana Enhanced (CHANGE) project by RAINS in five communities in the Savelugu-Nanton Municipality with funding support from the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFATD) and the Canadian Feed The Children (CFTC).

Checks by Savannahnews, suggests bush burning has already started in parts of the municipality and this the MCE observed, could pose a threat to farmers who are yet to harvest most of their crops and cart their produce including rice and maize home.

Even though the municipality has byelaws prohibiting people from engaging in negative environmental practices, Mr. Abdulai confessed that, the laws are not punitive enough to discourage people from engaging in the practice. “I’ll make sure that the byelaws are reviewed and provide enough punishments that will discourage people from burning the bush and felling trees any how”, he stressed.

According to him, the Assembly through his leadership is also introducing a policy that will increase the tree population in all communities in the municipality. This, he said, would add up to the policy of avoiding tree felling during any kind of construction unless the tree is considered an obstruction to the particular construction work.

The effects of climate change are increasingly wreaking havoc on residents of Northern Ghana, particularly smallholder farmers in the Upper West, Upper East and Northern Regions who constitute about 80 percent of the total population or labour force in each of the regions.

These effects manifest in the form of influx of pest, scorching sun, excessive heat, low humidity, erratic rainfall, perennial storm/flood and prolong drought which negatively affect farmers. As a result, many of the farmers in these regions are increasingly faced with crop failure or low yields.

File pic. 2007 flood, Buipe

One of the most prominent climate change effects in recent times is the 2007 flood disaster that hit parts of Northern Ghana in 2007. The flood destroyed the lives of human beings and animals, arable lands, homes, public buildings including schools, health centres and markets among others. 

About half a million people were displaced, more than fifty people killed, over thirty thousand houses collapsed and nearly two hundred thousand metric tons of food crops were destroyed. An estimated 8 million dollars was spent by government on sustainable relief development and another 25 million dollars on direct emergency funding. 

Ghana, like many other African countries, is not a major contributor to green house gasses or industrial pollution but, she is one of the most affected by climate change effects. The country contributed about 9.6% representing 0.34 tons to emissions in 2008 and 2009 according to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

At the moment, an estimated 450 people are benefiting from the CHANGE project. At its inception in January 2013, capacities of beneficiaries were built on good land use practices, the need to desist from bush burning and indiscriminate felling of trees, among others.

The CHANGE project, apart from being implemented in Yilikpani, Zoosali, Kpachelo, Tindang and Langa the Savelugu-Nanton Municipality in the Northern Region, is also benefiting several thousands of people in the Upper East and Upper West Regions. 

Exec. Dir. RAINS

About 84,000 women and men smallholder farmers in 17 communities in the district and municipalities of Savelugu-Nanton, Sissala East and Bolgatanga are targeted to improve adaptive capacity and resilience to improve the impacts of climate change on agriculture, food security and livelihoods.

The project will improve the quality and accessibility of locally relevant information about climate, weather, and innovative agricultural practices, and strengthen community- and radio-based agricultural extension services. 

The Executive Director of RAINS Mohammed Hardi Tijani said his organisation’s intervention in the area of food security is as a result of a long term observation being made regarding how many children dropout from school due to hunger or lack of food at home.

He explained that, in order to stop or pre-empt this abnormally which is negatively affecting quality education delivery and high enrolment of females in school, RAINS decided to provide support to communities in which it is working to improve upon education outcomes.

The Project Officer Mohammed Kamel Damma indicated that, smallholder farmers have reported increase in yields in the 2013 and 2014 farming season due to improved adaptive capacity and increased resilience to the impacts of climate change on agriculture, food security and livelihoods.

Smallholder farmers in project communities, he noted, have also reduced risk of climate change impact on their household livelihoods due to increased access to information about climate change and its effects, and strengthened capacity to implement adaptive measures. 

RAINS, is a non-governmental organisation set up by a group of social development activists in Northern Ghana in 1993. Since its foundation, RAINS has focused on improving the quality of life particularly for children, women, girls and the disabled in the Northern Region.

Farmer Courts Government to Increase Investment in Agriculture in Northern Ghana

Alhassan Darison

The 2013 Northern Regional Best Farmer in Butternut Squash Alhassan Baba Darison, has made a passionate appeal to government to increase investment and commitment towards the development of the agricultural sector in Northern Ghana in order to make farming the true choice of business for the increasing population in the area especially the unemployed youth. 

Mr. Baba Darison said that government ought to commit some substantial amount of money for the construction of well mechanized irrigation dams to enhance agricultural productivity in the area and also attract more youth to venture into the sector.

He said that farmers in the Central Gonja District in the Northern Region for instance had since 2011 encountered unpredictable rainfall patterns resulting in excessive crop failures and unimaginable food shortages. 

Speaking in an interview with Savannahnews, Mr. Baba Darison noted that majority of the commercial and subsistent farmers in the district had been demoralized by the annual drought because their farms always went bad and they also lost all the monies they invested in their farms.

He said that most of the farmers, though had the strong desire to do more to feed the nation’s population, they always encountered challenges every year following the poor nature of the rains they experience in the district.

Farmers in the Northern Sector of Ghana largely depend on rainfall for their agricultural businesses. The Farmers averagely receive only four (4) months of rainfall for their farming activities, but experience eight (8) months long of no rains (dry season) every year, which makes it very disadvantageous for the farmers in the North of Ghana to do sustainable farming as compared to their counterparts in the southern parts of Ghana.

What seems to compound their situation, according to Mr. Baba Darison is the prevalence of Climate Change in the Savannah Zone caused by the frequent bush burning being perpetuated by Fulani herdsmen and illegal chainsaw operators in the area. 

He appealed to the government to create more high yielding irrigation systems in every district of the region to enable the farmers to go into all year round farming. 

The 2013 Northern Regional Best Farmer in Butternut Squash noted that with the irrigation dams, farmers would not only become motivated and do more for the nation in terms of food supply, it would also encourage majority of the unemployed youth to venture into agriculture.

He said that the high expectations of the farmers in the Central Gonja District and other parts of the region to get good yields in 2014 could not realize, as the rainfall pattern in the area continued to be unfavourable to the farmers. 

The Former Internal Revenue Service staff lamented that the Central Gonja District did not receive a single drop of rain between May and latter part of July this year 2014 resulting in total crop failure. Those who went into early cultivation of maize, soybean, groundnut, rice and yam have been heavily disappointed, as their anticipation for early rains did not materialize. 

Mr. Baba Darison was sad that most commercial farms in the district were heavily affected by the poor rains including his 300 acre maize and soybean farm as well as his 75 acres of organic mango plantation. He said that the soils were totally dried up begging for rains and moisture to stimulate germination and growth of the crops.

The maize for instance, which were cultivated in early June and were expected to be ready for harvesting by August he said still leaved much to be desired. “The heights of the crops were dwarfish, the sizes were smaller and the colour changed to yellowish due to the poor weather condition”.

According to him, he had so far invested GHC137, 000 from a loan he had contracted from the Venture Capital into his farm this year, and also purchased a new planter at the cost of GHC17, 000, but the total absence of the rains had caused him to lose almost everything. 

The commercial farmer told this blogger that at a point the Agric Extension Officers in the Central Gonja District visited most of the farms and advised the farmers to plough their lands again and replant in anticipation for possible latter rains. 

He said that, looking at the state of the crops, cutting them down and replanting was indeed the only available option. But most of the disappointed farmers including himself, Sulemana Braimah (120 acre yam and groundnut farmer) and Imoro Mohammed Mumuni (176 acre maize and yam farmer) he noted, were totally handicapped since they had already invested all the monies they had contracted from their creditors into the farms. 

Unfortunately, however, he said the farmers adhered to the Extension Officers advice of cutting down and replanting, yet the crops failed again because the rains once again seized in early October. 

The District Director of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Abdul Manan Abdul Kadri admitted that the farmers in the district had faced series of serious challenges especially from 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 farming seasons.

He told Savannahnews that there was the likelihood that the area and most parts of the Northern Regions would experience serious food shortage next year, following the unfavourable rains the farmers experienced. 

He hinted that majority of the farmers were shifting from maize and yam cultivation to groundnut cultivation as a result of the lack of rainfalls. 

Mr. Abdul Kadri said that most of the farmers had ploughed their lands down several weeks in anticipation for rains but could not plant, those who planted early did not see germination and those whose maize were at the tasseling stage did not see fruits on them as at July and August. 

The District MoFA Director attributed the poor weather condition in the Central Gonja to climate change resulting from bush burning, charcoal burning and illegal chainsaw operation in the area.

He appealed to the government to halt those illegal activities to save the area from further degradation. Mr. Abdul Kadri also appealed for the construction of simple irrigation dams to support the farmers in the district to go into all year farming. 

Northern Regional Minister Worried Over Indiscipline Among Youth

N/R Minister

The Northern Regional Minister, Alhaji Mohammed Muniru Lemuna has raised serious concern about the way majority of the youth in Tamale and for that matter Northern Region are increasingly becoming indiscipline, disrespectful and unruly by the day. 

He said that the youth of the region were almost going out of control and charged all traditional, religious and opinion leaders to find ways of dealing with the situation.

The Minister virtually lost his disposition and his usual gentlemanly posture, when he mounted the podium to address a durbar of chiefs and people of the Northern Region to mark the celebration of the National Festival of Arts and Culture (NAFAC) in Tamale.

The Youth of the region indeed are fast gaining notoriety for attacking chiefs and other people in authority, chasing away and sometimes beating up Ministers of State, Members of Parliament, Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives as well as locking up offices and seizing official vehicles and bungalows of government officials among other barbaric behaviours.

Against this backdrop, Alhaji Lemuna who somewhat blamed the traditional rulers and other people in authority in the region for condoning such boisterous behaviours for some time now, emphatically stated that he would never tolerate such acts so far as he remained the Regional Minister.

According to him, it was time the leaders of the region woke up to boldly speak against the youth for becoming so unruly and disrespectful in society. “We know that those of us in Northern Region were brought up to respect our elders and people in authority. But what do we see these days? I was instructed by the President John Dramani Mahama to settle a dispute between some youth in Gambaga-Nalerigu constituency and their District Chief Executive. I was in this meeting from 12 noon to 6:00pm only to see some youth led by two guys entering the meeting hall to come and attack me. If our youth have grown horns to the level of going to attack Regional Minister in his residence, who knows who will be next be attacked. This is not the first time and this must stop. If we are producing children that we cannot control, children who do not respect Ministers, DCEs and traditional rulers and other people in authority then we must begin to be worried”.

Alhaji Lemuna therefore vowed to deal with any rowdy youth who would attempt to break the laws.

On the other hand, the Northern Regional Minister called on the private sector to partner the government to exploit and develop the creative arts and tourism industry to create more employment for the youth.

He said that government was ready to support all the youth engaged in the production of hand-woven smocks, leather works and other art works in the region.

This year's NAFAC which is being celebrated on a regional basis is on the theme: "Creative Arts and Tourism Industry: A Platform for National Development." It is being supported by MTN Cultural Fest under the caption MTN Savannah Fest 2014. 

The Northern Region is abound with a lot of tourist sites including the popular Mole Game Reserve, Nalerigu Defense Wall, Salaga Slave Market, the Mystic Stone and the 13th Century Mosque at Larabanga among others.

RAINS Offers Lifeline To 3,700 Children To Attain Basic Education

Executive Dir. RAINS

An estimated 3,700 children and another 6,500 members from four communities in the West Mamprusi District and the Savelugu-Nanton Municipality in the Northern Region of Ghana, are receiving support from the Regional Advisory Information and Network Systems (RAINS) and Hope for Children, UK.

Between now and 2017, a 3-year extension project, “Childhood Regained” phase II of an initial 2-year pilot project that was implemented in Daboya No. 2 and Nayorku in West Mamprusi and Nanton-Kurugu and Zokuga in Savelugu-Nanton, will offer a lifeline to children in these communities to attain quality basic education.

The Executive Director of RAINS, Tijani Mohammed Hardi told Savannahnews, the aim is to sustain and improve upon the gains made in Childhood Regained phase I and bring about an integrated community development so that the model could be replicated in other areas by other development partners.

According to Mr. Tijani, the project uses similar strategies that were adopted in the phase I albeit with little adjustments and additions reflecting recommendations of the project evaluations and lessons learnt in its implementation. 

“The project focuses on promoting child rights, reducing child labour and child exploitation in rural communities in the Northern Region. It aims at empowering local community structures to effectively promote positive change that will enrich the lives of beneficiaries and communities” he emphasised. 

He said the project seeks to achieve this objective in a multi-dimensional facet using three main strategies– the provision of quality basic education; support in livelihood options for women group; and community advocacy for the elimination of cases of child labour and other forms of child exploitation.

The Savelugu-Nanton Municipality is at the moment struggling to redeem its sinking image in the education sector since it took the bottom spot in the 2013 nationwide Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE). Besides, of the 22 Junior High Schools presented by the Municipal Directorate of the Ghana Education Service (GES) for the 2012 BECE, 15 schools scored below 40 percent representing 68.20 percent.

But, there are underlying causes to the poor performances of schools and pupils in this municipality. Authorities cite candidates lack of adequate understanding of simple concepts in their subject areas; incomplete coverage of syllabus/loss of contact hours; weak foundation at the primary level; poor attitude of teachers towards work; lack of standardized mode of assessment to track schools performances and high level of truancy among BECE candidates after registration.

Other reasons given are inappropriate use of instructional hours by teachers; lack of parental supervision and monitoring of children’s learning behaviour; negative peer influence; inadequate or poor supervision of schools by GES officials as well as mass promotion of pupils to the next class at the end of academic years.

A lot of the aforementioned reasons are equally responsible for the poor performances of schools and pupils in all the 28 districts in the Northern Region, besides the lack of teachers and teaching and learning materials in some of the schools. Official statistics from the GES say, there are about 404 schools in the Northern Region that have no teachers at all.   

 Children, elders of Zokuga during a community durbar

The NGO Desk Officer at the Savelugu-Nanton Municipal Education Directorate, Mohammed Abdul-Rashid, admits there are challenges confronting education in the municipality and said steps are being taken to address the challenges.

He pointed out inadequate monitoring as one of the major challenges, adding that, the Municipal Education Directorate is being provided with fuel and other logistics to ensure effective and efficient supervision and monitoring of teachers attendance and performances.

While commending RAINS for their unflinching support in recent times, Mr. Abdul-Rashid urged the people of Nanton-Kurugu and Zokuga to make good use of the support being provided by the organisation.

The Project Officer, Munira Musah, said 2,500 children who are at risk of dropping out from school, will get the opportunity to have continued quality education. “It’s an outcome that targets children in school called ‘Stars’ under the Comic Relief Funded project”, she told Savannahnews.

“1,200 children will also stop being engaged in exploitative labour and enter quality formal education or training. This outcome on the other hand, targets the out-of-school children called ‘Eagles’ under the project”, Ms. Musah noted.

She also mentioned that, about 1,500 women and families are expected to sustainably fund their children’s access to quality education or training by the end of the project. This, she said, targets the mothers of the children who are direct beneficiaries –the Stars and the Eagles mothers in the communities.

Opinion leaders, school management committees (SMCs), parent teacher associations (PTAs), social welfare and the department of children among others, Ms. Musah stressed, will also have their capacity enhanced to be able to protect 3,300 children in six schools from abuse.  

The implementation of the Childhood Regained project adds up to an ongoing project –INCOME, by RAINS and Canadian Feed The Children in the Savelugu-Nanton Municipality. INCOME is providing support to hundreds of children at Kpachelo English and Arabic School and the Zoosali M/A Primary School through the donation of teaching and learning materials, furniture, classrooms, bicycles and other form of assistance to their parents.   

Similarly, under the IEGA project which ends in November this year, RAINS has been able to train many PTAs, SMCs, district education oversight committees and other civil society organisations to effectively manage schools in the West Mamprusi District for efficient delivery of quality education.

RAINS, is a non-governmental organisation set up by a group of social development activists in Northern Ghana in 1993. Since its foundation, RAINS has focused on improving the quality of life particularly for children, women and girls in the Northern Region.