Agriculture expert urges government to prioritise climate change adaptation for farmers

The government is being challenged to be more deliberate in its attempts to mitigate the effects of climate change and climate variability and help farmers adapt to the current changes.

Agriculture Policy Consultant Emmanuel Wullingdool said a key area for the government to focus on is helping farmers deal with droughts.

Since less than 5% of Ghana’s arable land is irrigated, the significant changes in temperature and rainfall patterns have affected the country’s agricultural productivity.

In the Upper East Region, weeks of little to no rainfall across most parts of the region have led to crops shrivelling and drying up.

Some farmers have failed to see their crops germinate entirely. In certain areas, farmers are still yet to plant, a situation that, according to Richard Akuka, Regional Chairman for the Farmers’ Network, is a recipe for disaster.

According to Ghana Policy Link Activity under the Feed the Future programme, “studies integrating crop models predict the situation will only worsen. Maize yields in certain parts of the country, for example, are projected to decline by between 9%and 39% under various scenarios.”

“Farmers could, however, adapt better to the situation if government policies and programmes in irrigation are deliberate,” Wullingdool said.

“If you construct dams for farmers and you have not put in place how farmers are going to pump that water, and because our people are practicing mixed farming, you have those with animals and those with crops, and you say they should all use the same dam, how is that going to work? There would be conflict,” he questioned.

Mr. Wullingdool then suggested, “For the projects to work, they have to go beyond just provision of the dam, to provision of the means for utilization. That would require pumps or canals to get the water to the fields, and wire meshes or fences to protect the crops from the animals that would come and drink from the dams. This is what I mean by government being deliberate.”

Wullingdool explained that if the government is able to do this, farmers in northern Ghana, who have traditionally had just one rainy season, would be able to farm at least three times a year.

In the meantime, farmers in the Upper East Region continue to pray for rains to help save what is left of their crops.

Reporting by Mark Smith in the Upper East Region

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