Under the scotching sun on a small farm, Madam Asaamah Akurigo, a 36-year-old farmer from Awaradone, a farming community in the Talensi District of the Upper East Region, grows various kinds of vegetables.
The mother of two cultivates kenaf, okro, onion, pepper among other local nutrient- dense vegetables through the use of solar powered mechanised borehole installed in her community.
She feeds her family with some of the vegetables for nutritional diets, while she harvests the rest to sell on the local markets to earn some income.
The most interesting thing is that when the rains end in October and the dry season sets in, Madam Akurigo no longer travels to southern Ghana to wash bowls in chop bars as she used to do, instead she engages in dry season vegetable production.
“Due to the erratic rainfall, we don’t usually get good yields during the rainy season, so during the dry season I always travel with my friends to the South to work and return during the rainy season to undertake our farming activities,” she told the Ghana News Agency.
“I have been doing that to fend for my two children and it has not been easy but now I concentrate on my vegetable farming, which is much better than travelling down south to wash bowls and sleep under distress conditions.”
The solar irrigation system in the community allows Madam Akurigo and her family to overcome the increasing lengthy dry spells and grow crops throughout the dry season and into the rainy season.
Madam Akurigo is just one among the more than 500 smallholder women farmers drawn from eight communities in four districts of the Upper East and Upper West regions, who are supported with solar irrigation systems to undertake dry season vegetable farming as part of the climate change adaptation efforts.
The beneficiary communities are Awaradone and Yameriga in the Talensi District, Gbango and Tarikom in the Bawku West District, Dalaasa and Naadema; Builsa South District, all in the Upper East Region, as well as Nanchala and Sakalu in the Sisaala East District of the Upper West Region.
Already, seven hectares of farmlands have been secured and fenced at Awaradone, Tarikom, Sakalu and Naadema communities and the women and youth are already practicing solar irrigated vegetable production.
The support is part of the Creating Lands of Opportunity: Transforming Livelihoods through Landscape Restoration in the Sahel (LOGMe), a three-year project of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), a Non-Governmental Organisation.
This is being implemented in Ghana, Burkina Faso, and Niger with funding support from the Italian Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security through the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).
In Ghana the Savannah Agriculture Research Institute of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR-SARI) is an implementing partner of the project in eight communities of the four districts.
This is in collaboration with the the Environmental Protection Agency, Ministry of Food and Agriculture and the A Rocha Ghana, a non-governmental organisation.
The project aimed to empower communities to contribute significantly towards landscape restoration, adapting to the impact of changing climate by engaging climate-smart and sustainable agriculture practices while creating income generating opportunities for the beneficiaries.
Climate Change Impact
Experts say climate change threatens the livelihoods of many rural folks and agriculture production with increased temperatures, erratic rainfall, long droughts and floods, and the situation is likely to push millions of people into extreme poverty in the near future.
Even if food production increases by 60 per cent, it would be difficult to ensure food security globally by 2050 due to increasing population and threats of climate change (Food and Agriculture Organisation).
The situation, coupled with loss of soil fertility, is believed to be getting worse in the dry Sahel region and there is the need to adapt and increase food production to avert hunger.
Through the LOGMe project, communities such as Awaradone, Tarikom, Naadema and Sakalu, smallholder farmers, particularly women and youth, are now adapting to the climate change impacts by engaging in solar irrigation throughout the year.
Impact
Madam A-ankeli Adugbila, a 38-year-old beneficiary from Awaradone, who cultivates okro, onion and kenaf through the solar irrigation system, said engaging in dry season vegetable production has had a positive effect on family.
“Unlike before, we now get vegetables to balance our diet and also sell some to earn income, which helps me to take care of my children in school,” she said.
“Last year, for instance, I made about GH₵1,000.00 from the sale of vegetables I cultivated. So currently I am saving some money to help my daughter who gained admission into the tertiary institution last year but couldn’t go due to lack of funds.”
“Apart from that, the project has brought peace to my home because I can now contribute to the upkeep of the family and I no longer disturb my husband for money all the time.”
Ms Helena Alaarika, a senior high school student from Naadema, noted that through the vegetable production, she had been able to earn income to provide her basic needs such as sanitary pads and feeding at school.
Naba Ayoore Abdul-Karim, the Chief of Tarikom, lauded the project for not only helping to restore degraded landscapes but also teaching the community sustainable agriculture practices, which had helped to reduce bushfires and improved organic fertiliser usage.
Need to Adapt
Dr Julius Yirzagla, Senior Research Scientist with the Savannah Agriculture Research Institute, told the GNA that climate change impact was hitting hard at the agriculture sector, hence the urgent need for climate-smart and sustainable agriculture production to help communities adapt to the changing weather.
The project, through a Sustainable Value Chain Development Plan, thus trained small holder farmers on best agronomic practices and introduced them to improved, high yielding seeds, particularly soya beans and maize and their cultivation.
“We introduced them to early maturing crop varieties like maize and soya bean, which is actually in line with climate smart agriculture and the community members have taken ownership of all the things we have done.”
“They are now producing certified maize and soya bean seeds to sell,” he said.
LOGMe Project
Ms Dorcas Owusuaa Agyei, the National Coordinator of IUCN, said although Ghana was not directly a Sahelian country, many rural and vulnerable areas continue to face desertification, landscape degradation and adverse effects of climate change, affecting livelihoods, particularly of women and children.
Through the solar powered mechanised boreholes under the project, the beneficiaries were practicing all year-round vegetable production, empowering them economically by earning income from the sale of the vegetables.
“More than 10,000 farmers from all the eight project landscapes benefit from climate change and adoptive measures such as postharvest handling, soil fertility improvement, pest and disease management among others…,” she said.
“While more than 20,000 farmers have benefited from farm and storage equipment including roller planters, multipurpose threshers, and weighing scales.”
Ms Agyei indicated that through the project over 1,700 hectares of degraded landscapes have been restored in the eight communities involved in the management of natural resources such as the protection of water bodies and forest reserves.
“Another aspect of the project is introducing the communities to sustainable renewable energy to reduce felling of trees for charcoal production and fuel wood, especially in the Sisaala areas.”
“So, we have provided about 2,800 households in the eight communities with improved cook stoves and introduced them to using grass as briquettes as alternatives to charcoal and the communities are no longer cutting trees.”
Suffice it to say that the project has also introduced alternative livelihoods such as soap making, soya bean khebab and milk and is looking at opportunities to upscale to other communities to make maximum impact.
“Over 200 women in Yameriga, Dalaasa, Tarikom and Nanchala have their capacities developed in soya bean processing and are making business out of this training,” she added.
Ms Felicite Chabi Gonne, Regional LOGMe Project Coordinator (Ghana, Niger and Burkina Faso), said it was time for the formulation of climate adaptive strategies to empower communities to stay resilient.
She urged the local authorities to help scale up these interventions to other places to widen the impact made and ensure food security.
