By Esther Awuah
Alliance
for Green Revolution Africa (AGRA), in
collaboration with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research and the
Science and Technology Policy Research Institute (CSIR-STEPRI), has launched a
research project on the
negative effect of climate change on agricultural productivity in Ghana.
The project, which started on November 1st,
2012 and ends on May, 31 2015, is aimed at improving food security and
reducing income volatility for smallholder farmers by enhancing their adaptation
to climate change and variability in the breadbasket regions of Ghana.
According to
AGRA, the issue of climate change “is exacerbated by policy gaps and low awareness levels both
within government officials, policymakers, farmers and other stakeholders.”
It however noted that a few
interventions have been put in place to enable smallholder farmers adopt best
agricultural practices that improve their adaptation strategies to climate
change.
At the launch of the project, Dr. Nelson Obirih-Opareh, the
National Policy Hub Coordinator, AGRA stated
that “government’s
strategies have, in the main, failed to set priorities, interventions and
targets which respond to climate change. This is evidenced by the fact that
sectoral policies such as agricultural policies have not to date prioritised
smallholder farmer adaptation to climate change.”
This, he said, highlights the need to improve inter-sectoral
integration in the interest of climate change adaptation.
In
addition, the country’s climate change policy framework does not adequately enhance agricultural policy and other sector strategies
comprehensively nor does it consider a broad range of impacts as well as the
interrelationship between a range of factors such as social exclusion,
environmental damage and structural scarcity.
“Given the fact that the impact of climate change on the
livelihoods of the smallholder farmers has particular consequences for rural
women, policy provisions that do not pay sufficient attention to the situation
of women in the face of the debilitating impacts of climate change and weather
variability are problematic,” Mr. Obirih-Opareh.
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