Background
The effect of climate change on agricultural land and its activities in northern Ghana is dire and has left local farming in the area in a sorry state.
The decrease in rainfall during the rainy season, coupled with an increase in temperatures, significantly decreases productivity.
These communities are solely dependent on rainfed agriculture, as they grow maize, beans, sorghum, and subsistence vegetables during the rainy seasons.
Farmers are experiencing repeated losses; this has very real implications for people’s health and well-being across the country, leading to some parents sending out their children to urban areas for headporter jobs (kayaye), food insecurity, hunger, and malnutrition, among other things.
It is against this background that Youth Empowerment for Life, also known as YEFL, and its partners, CLIP and Ghana Venskab, initiated the GoAdopt project, an intervention that supports an inclusive climate adaptation planning process from the community level to the district level, feeding into the national adaptation plan and strengthening the adaptive capacity and resilience of smallholder farmers in vulnerable communities in the northern region, as well as reducing the dire effects of climate change on the livelihood of communities in the northern region.
The project has had an has had an impact so far.
A field visit to the Kpegu and Tumahi communities in the Kumbungu and Savulugu districts, respectively, saw beneficiary farmers, especially women, harvesting their vegetables on a large scale for sale at the market.
Speaking to some of the farmers, they said the project has been of great benefit to them and their families.
Mma Samata, a beneficiary who spoke to us, said the projects have given her a sustainable source of income and lessened the burden on her husband as she is able to provide for her basic needs without requesting anything from her husband.
Meanwhile, the male farmers say they are able to do all-year farming thanks to the irrigation system provided by YEFL and partners as part of the project.
“In the past, when the rains stopped, we became idle and redundant for over six months, but thanks to the GoAdapt project, we are able to keep ourselves busy with this irrigation farming and make even more income from the sale of these vegetables.”
However, the Advocacy and Engagement Officer at YEFL, Fathiaya Zakaria, said the project is not focused on only irrigation but has some strategic interventions that include raising awareness and knowledge about climate change and its effects, as well as supporting vulnerable families to advocate for an inclusive local and national adaptation plan.
She added that the overall objective of the project is to contribute to the climate vulnerability of communities in the northern region of Ghana, advocate for inclusive climate adaptation, and increase resilience to climate change variability.
She said the success so far did not come on a silver platter, as they were faced with acquiring appropriate land for the project as well as difficulty getting young people to participate in the farming activities.
“Due to the hardship in the country, most of the young people in the community had left for the south, so it was difficult to get young people to participate in the project.” She disclosed.
YEFL
Youth Empowerment for Life (YEFL), established in 2010, is a youth-led civil society organisation that empowers youth through engagements, networks, information sharing, and capacity building to lead change. It is well placed to mobilise the youth in the northern part of Ghana for climate action and other pressing issues.
By: Prince Kwame Tamakloe/Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana