An ECOWAS regional programme aimed at supporting nine (9) West African countries with the objective of systematically transitioning to climate-smart agriculture, based on their national circumstances, has been launched in Accra by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).
The Norwegian government has provided a total funding of US$1.3million for the project, and the FAO is coordinating the project in the nine beneficiary ECOWAS countries.
The fifth assessment report (AR5) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC-2013) finds beyond reasonable doubt that the Earth’s climate is warming.
Africa’s climate is already changing, and impacts are being felt in African society and will continue to significantly affect food security, trade, water-availability, and human and animal health within the continent of Africa.
Climate change threatens to undermine the stability of many African countries, particularly poor and vulnerable smallholder farmers who depend heavily on rain as their main source of irrigation.
To build the resilience of rural farmers and ensure sustainable production systems, there have been calls for other interventions that are aimed at building the capacity of local farmers through transfer of appropriate technologies that are sound and easy to adopt.
The African Union (AU) has identified environmental and ecosystems resilience, and enhanced sustainable agriculture productivity, as key impact areas in driving implementation of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) over the next decade and beyond.
This builds on the gains and lessons from the last ten years of CAADP implementation, thereby reflecting some of the key priority areas into which countries are putting their efforts and resources.
In 2005, the ECOWAS Heads of State adopted the ECOWAS Agricultural Policy (ECOWAP) as an instrument for coordinating the CAADP — the agricultural component of the NEPAD — within the region.
Miss Angela Dannson, Director, Project Coordination Unit of MoFA, represented Chief Director Joseph Boamah — who said at the launch that climate change has become the biggest challenge of the century, threatening survival on earth.
The Chief Director of MoFA said Ghana has been identified as one of the countries highly vulnerable to climate change, and over the past few years the country has experienced practical manifestations and direct effects of climate change.
He cited 2007, when the northern floods directly affected a total of 317,000 people; destroyed 1,000 km of roads, affected 210 schools and damaged 45 healthcare facilities; while contaminating or damaging 630 drinking water facilities.
Loss of crops, livestock, and agricultural equipment and machinery as well as food storage facilities was enormous.
In October of 2010, several districts were severely flooded in five out of the country’s ten regions; while in 2013 Teshie was flooded and lives and some properties were lost.
This year, June 3rd saw destructive floods and late September also saw the effects of flooding.
Government, recognising the negative effects of climate change on the national economy, is making the necessary efforts to tackle this challenge.
In July 2014, President Mahama launched the National Climate Change Policy (NCCP), and the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) has ensured climate change issues are adequately captured in the Ghana Shared Growth and development Agenda (GSGDA).
Government is mobilising the needed financial support to implement the policy, which is estimated at US$9billion.