Climate change puts Ghana's agric at risk

Ghana may be worst hit by the impact of Climate Change (CC) if adequate measures are not adopted to contain the brunt, according to a report by the Environmental Protection Agency.

The report cautioned that the current low yields than projected being experienced in the agric sector had been attributed to the effects of climate change.

It warned that yields in the agric sector are expected to further decrease, which may likely affect the vulnerable and the poor.

The report termed the Policy Advice Series 2 highlights the negative effects of climate change on the agricultural sector in Ghana.

The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), in Article 1, defines climate change as: ‘A change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods’.

Historical data for Ghana from the year 1961 to 2000 clearly shows a progressive rise in temperature and decrease in annual rainfall. In Ghana, CC is manifested through rising temperatures, declining rainfall totals and increased variability, rising sea levels and high incidence of weather extremes and disasters such as flash floods (Minia et al. 2004).

Agriculture accounts for about one-third of Gross Domestic Product (GDP); 28.3 per cent (2011 est.) and employs more than half of the workforce, mainly small landholders. The sector grew by 2.8 per cent against a target of 5.3 per cent in 2011 (2012 Budget).

Irregular rainfall pattern is a feature of CC with particularly damaging consequences, such as droughts and flood and these are predicted to get worse over time.

According to the EPA Policy Advice Series, which have been developed to enhance understanding and appreciation of CC and disaster risk issues, by policy makers and senior technocrats and to support them to take urgent and needed decisions, agriculture and food security are interrelated and thus, CC induced unsustainable livelihoods will result in negative consequences on food security, poverty, health, education, gender equality and environmental degradation.

Agricultural production’s dependence on rainfall is a significant hindrance to the developments of the sector in Ghana. The use of irrigation to counter the effects of poor rainfall is particularly low across the country.

Agriculture is highly sensitive to temperature and rainfall and yields are plummeting and will continue to do so. Major challenges in the agricultural sector include low crop yields, over dependence on inconsistent rainfall, unsustainable agricultural practices, low knowledge of use technology and sustainable utilisation of the natural resource base, mostly due to poverty levels among farmers.

CC impacts are reduced soil fertility due to changes in precipitation (rainfall) and temperature, rainfall deficits resulting in desertification of grazing pastures and reduced water availability for animals and shifts in agro-ecological zones that are too rapid for trees and farming systems to adapt to.

Others are incidents of pest attacks resulting from an increased temperature, loss of cropland from erosion and desertification, coastal erosion and destruction of valuable coastal agricultural land.

Earlier this month, about 5,200 acres of rice farms in the Ketu-North District of the Volta region were invaded by army worms and caused massive destruction to crops. The farms included 1,200 acre Afife Irrigation Project Farm and another 3,000 acres of rain fed private farms located in the Kpli Valley at Klenomadi. A total of 2,524 farmers risked losing their livelihood but for the timely intervention of the Regional Directorate of Agriculture that commenced spraying to prevent the spread of the army worm invasion in the district.

In 2003 Ghana signed the Maputo Declaration of African countries allocating 10 per cent of national budgetary resources to develop the agricultural sector. The spending on agricultural research and development in Ghana doubled between 2000 and 2008, from GH¢151 billion to GH¢352 billion respectively, but most went towards an increased outlay for salaries (75 to 83 per cent).

All planning in the agricultural sector is aligned with the Food and Agricultural Sector Development Policy (FASDEP 11) which seeks to address the challenges of the agricultural sector.

However, impacts of CC have not been factored in any of the six policy objectives, though agriculture is highly sensitive to temperature and rainfall. For instance, objective one targets production and post harvest losses but does not account for the potential increase in vulnerability of the poor due to the unpredictable climate change conditions.

The EPA Policy Series 2 recommended that more urgently, impacts of CC need to be quickly factored into the sector plan so that additional funding can be sourced for CC adaptation measures in the country.

Nevertheless, government’s outlook for food and agriculture in 2012 as stated in the budget is to expand the Agriculture Subsidy Programme to include liquid fertilizers (bio-fertilizer) and improved seeds. The Ministry will subsidize 165,000 metric tonnes of chemical and liquid fertilizer.

“The National Food Buffer Stock Company will acquire another rice mill with a capacity of about 8.5 metric tonnes per hour, to be located in the Northern Region where rice production has been increasing for the past 3 years. In line with the national policy of stocking food for a better Ghana, at least 10,000 metric tonnes each of maize and milled rice, as well as 1,000 metric tonnes of soya beans will be stocked at all times,” Minister of Finance, Dr. Kwabena Duffuor announced.

Recently, the Minister of Food and Agriculture, Mr Kwesi Ahwoi announced that government had sourced an amount of US$145 million from the World Bank and the United States Agency for the implementation of the Ghana Commercial Agricultural Project (GCAP) to address food security in the country.

He said by the end of the project in 2017, Ghana would be able to produce enough rice to feed itself and also become the bread basket for West African sub-region. GB

Peels for profit

A study on the range of agricultural waste, (cassava and yam) solutions in Ghana has revealed cassava peels can be used as alternative substrate for cultivating quality mushrooms. Samuel Doe Ablordeppey and Ama Amankwah Baafi have been studying the report and write 

Unlike the mushrooms that are only collected from the wild in forest regions during the wet season; March-September, cultivated mushrooms are available all year round.

But researchers say the availability of wild mushrooms is being threatened as a result of high rate of bush burning, deforestation and over-exploitation of timber and non-timber forest products in Ghana.

Therefore, the potential use of cassava peels as a supplement (and not a complete replacer) of mushroom cultivation is promising. Mushroom has high nutritive and medicinal value. It is a rich source of proteins, minerals and vitamins.

Gradually, there is a shift from overdependence on consumption of wild mushrooms that are collected to the consumption of cultivated mushrooms in Ghana. This presents enormous opportunities for mushroom growers, subsequently cassava farmers.

The opportunities include; growing demand for value added organic products, especially, in the food services industry like hotels and restaurants; opportunities for public-private partnerships in establishing large mushroom farms and cultivation of mushrooms for export.

There is also a growing health consciousness of consumers; increased processing sites and therefore opportunities exist for bulk volumes of peels at processing concentration sites; and employment generation opportunities.

Again, it will augment government policies and focus on agri-business and entrepreneurial development as engines of economic growth.

The study on the agricultural waste solutions was conducted by the Food Research Institute (FRI) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), under the Gains from Losses of Root and Tuber Crops (GRATITUDE) project, in collaboration with the Natural Resources Institute (NRI, UK), to reduce physical and economic losses of yam and cassava.

GRATITUDE, a four-year European Union (EU) funded project in Ghana, Nigeria and Vietnam, also seeks to add value to the tubers by processing them into other forms of finished and preserveable products.

One of the key focuses of GRATITUDE which is on the theme, “Reducing Post-Harvest Losses for Increased Security”, is improved utilisation of wastes (peels, liquid waste) to produce products for human consumption such as snacks, production of mushrooms and improved animal feed.

Although there are different types of substrates available for mushroom cultivation in Ghana, the use of sawdust is the most popular but has several limitations, including unavailability due to rapid deforestation, inaccessibility, high cost of transporting sawdust from wood processing sites and longer periods of composting.

Cassava (Manihot esculenta) is cultivated in all the agro-ecological zones in Ghana due to its tolerance to pests and disease and resilient to harsh climatic conditions.

Total production of cassava was estimated at 14.3, 13.5 and 12.2 million tonnes in 2011, 2010 and 2009 respectively. Over 90 per cent of farmers in Ghana cultivate cassava, a major staple food in Ghana with per capita consumption of approximately 153 kilogrammes per annum (MoFA-SRID 2011).

About 50 per cent of cassava that is produced is utilised fresh while the rest are processed into various products including gari (25 per cent), agbelima (18 per cent) and kokonte (five per cent) and (one per cent) industrial purpose (Adjekum, 2006 and Onumah et al., 2008).

Yam production estimates for 2009, 2010 and 2011 were 5.7, 5.96 and 5.85 million tonnes respectively. Its production is concentrated in the Brong Ahafo and the Northern Regions. Last year, Ghana exported approximately 27,000 metric tonnes of yam (MoFA-SRID, 2012).

The GRATITUDE study primarily, focuses on where waste are generated along the value chain (transportation and storage) and the ability to collect in large quantities from the processing points, either at the household level, village level or factory / industrial level. Insignificant proportion of peels generated at processing level are utilised for animal feed.

The survey findings show that over 90 per cent of the peels generated were either burnt or just left unattended to at dumping sites. Extraction of starch from liquid waste was limited.

In the case of yams, wastes are mostly generated at the consumption (households, chopbars and food vendors) levels since yam processing is very limited, only done by few small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

Yam peels constitute about 14 per cent of the volumes of yams consumed in Ghana and approximately, five per cent of volumes of yams traded go waste. However, the study proved bulking of yam waste at the household level will involve a lot of work; therefore, it makes economic sense to concentrate effort now on the potential use of cassava waste (particularly peels).

It recommended that cassava peels could be composited before using for the cultivation of mushrooms and even after the production of mushrooms, the spent substrate, which is rich in nutrients can be used for the preparation of animal feed (poultry and small ruminants) and bio-fertilizers for crop cultivation (Chang 1997).

Mushrooms thus have the capacity to convert nutritionally valueless substances into high protein foods (Hafiz et al 2003). Form the study four different methods of mushroom cultivation in Ghana were identified; (i) traditional method (ii) the high bed method (iii) the low bed method and (iv)the plastic bag method.

Currently number of mushroom growers in Ghana is estimated at 2500 and they are mostly concentrated in Greater Accra (close to 50 per cent), Brong Ahafo, Ashanti, Eastern, Volta, Western and the Central Regions of Ghana. Mushroom growers in Ghana can be categorised into micro, small and medium (highly commercial) scale growers.

Some of the growers produce and sell fresh mushrooms only, others sell both fresh mushrooms and compost bags while others sell fresh, dried as well as value added mushroom products.

In Ghana, mushrooms for food may be cooked fresh after harvesting, dried before utilising for food preparations and milled mushroom used for shito. At least 50 per cent of Ghanaian households consume mushroom (Apetorgbor et al., (2005).

The same study showed that approximately 41 per cent consume mushrooms due to the taste, 20 per cent due to availability and 12 per cent for medicinal purposes.

Other consumers use mushrooms as delicacies in soups and stews. Some mushroom growers indicated exportation of their products to other neighbouring countries but these are quite informal and not captured in the Ghana trade statistics. GB