Community Life Improvement Programme (CLIP), a local NGO based in Tamale, has organized a two-day training workshop for a select number of farmers in 30 communities in Northern Region to adopt the best farming practices to mitigate the effect of climate change and to maximize national food security.
CLIP is implementing a project dubbed “Food For Life (F4L)” which is being initiated in 30 communities in the Yendi, Karaga and Gushiegu Districts; intended to provide food insecure farmer households with opportunities to improve their household food security situation through climate change adaptation strategies for farming and protection of agricultural assets and livelihood activities. This is to increase agricultural production in vulnerable communities.
According to Dr. Richard Yeboah, a Senior Lecturer of the Department of Agribusiness Management and Finance at the University for Development Studies (UDS), Nyankpala Campus, the short-term objective of F4L is to improve linkages between research and farm household practices in vulnerable communities through dissemination and adoption of climate change resilient technologies.
The goal of the programme is that, 60% of farmers in the 30 communities would apply localized coping and preventive strategies in addressing climate change, he said, adding “The project also intends to improve smallholder farmers’ capacity to adapt to climate change coping strategies and innovations for sustainable livelihoods and to promote best practices among duty bearers”.
Dr. Yeboah who was one of three facilitators noted that, the two-day training workshop was to create awareness of climate change and its effects among participants, build concerted efforts to tackle Food Security and Climate Change issues and build capacity of participants to solve local problems of Food Security and Climate Change.
He said as part of efforts to achieve the targets of the F4L, an eleven-member team think-tank was established in August 2010 from a cross-section of institutions and organizations to meet the objective of optimizing institutional effort to address food security in relation to climate change adaptation in Northern Ghana .
However, Dr. Richard Yeboah cited loss of livestock, immediate risk of increased crop failure, new patterns of pests and diseases, lack of appropriate seeds and planting material, inadequate storage facilities, post harvest losses and uncontrolled use of agro chemicals as some of the problems obstructing the achievement of food security in Northern Ghana .
Meanwhile, Messer Vitus Ayingayure of IDA and James M. Kombiok Savannah Agricultural Research Institute (SARI) in a presentation, advised farmers to adopt the use of improved varieties of seeds most especially drought, pest and disease resistant ones during cropping seasons in order to avoid the effects of climate change and crop failure or poor yielding.
They observed that currently the majority of farmers are planting food grains bought in the market or grain retained from their produce. Adding, “The result of this is low crop yields which still put the farmers at subsistence levels”.
The two crop scientists attributed reasons for the low usage of improved seeds to non-availability of improved seeds in rural communities, high cost of improved seeds, un-reliable sources of improved seeds, farmers preferring their own seeds due to ignorance and lack of education on use of improved seeds to counteract the climate change situation.
They therefore advocated for the use of improved seeds, selected for local conditions, as options that offer farmers a better chance to harvest lucrative crops.
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