Download Building Climate Smart Value Chain In Cocoa Sector : Rite 90.1FM

Search...
BREAKING NEWS

FAO holds mid-term review workshop in AccraSweet Potato Value Chain project
viable in Ghana – International Potato CentreLack of research blamed for army
worm invasionClose Down Somanya Abattoir: Krobea AsanteFarmers Must
Adopt Good Farming StrategiesSamuel Kwame Agyekum confirmed DCE for
AsuogyamanAko Foundation slates May 17 for Young people in Agribusiness
ForumJournalist Christopher Opoku Is DeadMy Family’s Criticism Forced Me to
Attempt SuicideVolta Region to lead cashew production

Home
ABOUT US
 PHOTO GALLERY
 CONTACT US
o OUR VIDEOS
o ADVERTISE
PROGRAMMES
o SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
 COMMUNITY WATCH
 DRIVE ALIVE
 AWARE FIE
 HEALTH MATTERS
o AGRIC
 AGRIC FORUM
 AGRO TECH
 KUA PA YO
o SPORTS
 SPORT NIGHT
 SPORT WORLD
 AGODIE NE ABIBI DURO
o ENTERTAINMENT
o









o
NEWS
AGRO NEWS
ADOM FM KASEƐBƆ
CITY FM EYE WITNESS REPORT
o RELIGIOUS
 GOSPLE TRAIN
 DEW OF HEAVEN
 SUNDAY SPECIAL
o MORNING SHOW
o POLITICAL
 PLATFORM
o PROGRAM LINE-UP
AGRO BLOGS
o AGRIPAGES GHANA
o AGRIC RELATED LINKS
o GREEN CLUB
AGRIC NEWS
o Farmers Views
o NATIONAL NEWS
o REGIONAL NEWS
o DISTRICT NEWS
o LOCAL NEWS
o BUSINESS
o INTERNATIONAL NEWS
o POLICY/RESEARCH
o SCI/TECH/DEV/MAC.
GENERAL NEWS
o SOCIAL NEWS
o ENTERTAINMENT
o POLITICS
o SPORTS
PROJECTS
o RITE FM PROJECTS
 FOOD HYGIENE
 MAASI PROJECT
 MAASI NEWS
o DISTRICT PROJECTS
o DEVELOPMENTAL PROJECT







OKWANSO ANIGYE
SLOW JAM
HITZ FACTORY
LUNCH EXTRA’S
LOVERS ROCK
ADWUMA MRE
FRIDAY FEVER
DJ’S CHOICE





OTHER PROJECTS
EVENTS
o RITE FM EVENTS
o UP-COMING EVENTS
 WORSHOP/SERMINARS
 NATIONAL EVENTS
 CONFERENCES
 FAIRS
JOBS
o CAREERS/INTERNSHIP TRAINING
o iREPORT
Election 2016
o Krobo Elections 2016
iREPORT
Home » AGRIC NEWS » Building Climate Smart Value Chain In Cocoa Sector
Building Climate Smart Value Chain In
Cocoa Sector
April 19, 2016 0 197 Views
Climate change is a serious threat to agricultural production which has a strong connotation
to achieving food security in Ghana.
The weather patterns has drastically changed in Ghana over the years. This has made
farmers unable to even predict the weather to aid in planting of crops. As a result, many
farmers record low crop production, impacting negatively on livelihood as well as export for
the country.
The cocoa sector is not spared from the onset of climate change. Farmers who plant
seedlings find it extremely difficult to nurture the growth of the seedlings. This is because
Ghana’s agricultural sector and for that matter the cocoa sector is heavily rain fed. The
application of irrigation facilities is so expensive to smallholder farmers and the government
cannot simply provide that means to every smallholder farmer due to budget constraint.
The cocoa sector remains a strong backbone to Ghana’s economy and growth as a middle
income country. Already, projected production for the cocoa season is not expected to be
met due various factors, of which climate change is involved.
Climate change and climate variability are expected to have a significant impact on
smallholder farming in the Ghanaian cocoa belt. As a response new measures that can
address those impacts are being defined under ‘Climate Smart Agriculture’. This new buzz
term already includes many of the tried and true measures that form the backbone of
sustainable agriculture – building soil fertility, protecting watersheds, increasing access to
knowledge, inputs and markets for more profitable and food secure farming livelihoods.
In addition, apart from aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from farming, the
concept of climate smart agriculture also introduces a new angle in that it helps farmers,
government, companies and non-governmental organisations better understand and
manage the risks posed by climate change and thus be more resilient. In order to make
such efforts meaningful for a large number of stakeholders, scaling climate smart
agriculture necessitates engaging multiple actors to understand site-specific projections of
climate impacts and develop suitable responses accordingly. This is no different for cocoa.
Projects aimed at building climate resilience in the sector become very vital to the growth of
the cocoa sector, especially as the country is trying all viable means to become the world’s
leading producer of cocoa.
A new project focusing on Climate Smart Cocoa Value Chains in Ghana is being
implemented in Ghana under CGIAR’s global ‘Climate Change, Agriculture and Food
Security’ (CCAFS) research program and being implemented by a project consortium made
up of preeminent actors in agricultural climate science and in sustainable value chain
development namely the CGIAR (represented by International Center for Tropical
Agriculture (CIAT) and International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Rainforest
Alliance (voluntary certification), Root Capital (impact investing) and Sustainable Food Lab
(global dialogue on sustainable agriculture systems).
This new CCAFS project focuses on mainstreaming climate smart agriculture in cocoa-based
farming systems, through applied climate science, certified supply chains and impact
investing. The project leverages existing value chain interventions and within them, will
translate climate science into actionable strategies for farmers and supporting actors
including industry, certifiers, and investors. This novel combination adds value to existing
work with the goal of achieving adoption at scale for locally relevant climate smart
agriculture practices.
Climate change impacts will vary across Ghana with major changes expected by 2030.
Zones in the north will face the strongest impacts due to strong dry seasons, decreased
rainfall and poor soils with much of these regions loosing suitability and facing pressure to
transition out of cacao and into other crops.
The central zone will face important impact with higher temperatures but more reliable
rainfall and average soils. This region can continue to product cacao with effective
intervention and adoption of climate smart agriculture practices.
The southern and western zones will require climate smart agriculture practice adoption but
will remain suitable for cacao. The current conditions in this agro ecological zone will
become predominant in the cocoa growing zones of Ghana by 2030 and even more so by
2050.
Recent data shows that farmers are already reporting declining cocoa yields in the north
and central zones due to climate change while southern wetter zones are higher.
Dr Mark Lundy, the project leader at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT)
says the project seeks to basically understand how climate change will affect the cocoa
sector in Ghana.
The idea is to understand much how climate change and soil capacity affect the cocoa
sector which we have worked on, he stated.
“The key message is that climate change will not affect the whole country at the same time
and the same way, so it is very important to understand where climate change impact will
happen first and most severe or stronger.
“The other thing we have been working on very closely is the idea of identifying the
different levels of climate change impact from coping, to adjustments, as well as
transformation, and the specific practice farmers need to adopt in different zones to be able
to produce cocoa, ” Dr Lundy said.
Series of workshops have been held with farmers to understand exactly the different
practices wold be most useful at different levels of climate change under the project. For a
farmer, risks include production, as well as how farming systems need to function under
climate change.
For this year the project would be taking that information on different types of risks and
providing solutions at that level of risks and eventually putting them into different
pathways.
“One is putting them into training materials so that farmers can get access to what needs
to be done where and also exploring how to build financial modules so that investment can
come in to support the uptake of these practices by farmers.
“Another area is to provide support to key policy makers such as COCOBOD, forestry
commission to improve in policy making. We are working very closely on conversation with
the private sector on what roles the private sector play in helping to promote climate smart
practices in cocoa in Ghana.
“So we understand that the changes need to happen at the farm level but we also expect
the private sector to provide support or incentive so that farmers will actually change,
because we can’t expect farmers to change on their own,” he says.
Sander Muilerman, a Social Scientist at the IITA says more actors in the cocoa value chain
need to reconsider issues such as policy, and practices.
“It is important to offer choices to farmers. This can be through training, through proposing
new farming strategies and to help them make their own assessments of how to become
resilient. We need to involve many different players to find solutions. Climate change is a
slow process but it is happening and farmers are feeling the impact.
“We need the whole sector to come together and examine the impact of climate change
because the impact will be strong by 2030. That impact will be felt by the future farmer,
the next generation.Therefore o the whole sector, private, policy makers, must come
together and think of systems that withstand the impact of climate change,” Muilerman
emphasised.
Dr Richard Asare, an Agroforester at IITA stated that the government of Ghana is the
process of supplying 60 million seedlings to farmers through rehabilitation and the major
risk to that is climate change.
“This is because if farmers do not have the package to plant these seedlings in the field, we
are going to lose all these seedlings and government lose money and lose out on future
cocoa beans. So the government can use the maps developed through the project to plan
policies before they are even started,” he noted.
Dr Christian Bunn, Postdoctoral Fellow at the CIAT, says farmers in the cocoa zones have
complained of higher temperatures leading to distress of seedlings.
Christian Mensah, Senior manager, West Africa at Rainforest Alliance, says farmers are
already experiencing the devastating impact of climate change and taking actions expect
that because of the lack of knowledge they are unsure whether these practices will help to
build the resilience and adaptation they need to face the changing climate.
According to him most decisions taken by farmers are based on past experiences.
“What this module helps to do now is to look into the future what we are seeing can be
better define practices to build residence against the future situation.
“It is helping at the moment to be more site specific, even for shade trees we have had
recommendations 69 shaded trees per acre but you go to Ankasa and you cannot have the
same recommendation there vice-a-vice place like Offinso.
“So if we can better advice farmers on these practices, that is relevant to their location then
that is the tool we have at the moment. And what we are trying to do at the policy level is
to try to build these understanding common language of delivering to the farmer so that
the farmer does not become confused with regard to what to do, ” he mentioned.
Stephanie Daniels, Senior Program Director, Agriculture & Development at Sustainable Food
Lab, noted that it is very important for Ghana to have a response to climate change.
“So it is both an opportunity for Ghana to secure its market by acting on it and it is a real
incentive for companies to understand that investing and making sure that their supplies
are secured meaning that farmers are resilient over many decades to come,” she stated.
Source: GNA
Share this:

Tweet



Email

Print


WhatsApp

Like this:
Like Loading...
Previous:
50,000 to lose jobs in fisheries sector
Next:
Bird flu:Farmers warned to intensify biosecurity
LEAVE A REPLY
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
Comment
Name *
Email *
Website
Post Comment


365 Followers
5,472 Fans
ADVERTISEMENT
ARCHIVES






























May 2017
April 2017
March 2017
February 2017
January 2017
December 2016
November 2016
October 2016
September 2016
August 2016
July 2016
June 2016
May 2016
April 2016
March 2016
February 2016
January 2016
December 2015
November 2015
October 2015
September 2015
August 2015
July 2015
June 2015
May 2015
April 2015
March 2015
February 2015
January 2015
December 2014
CATEGORIES
AGRIC NEWS AGRIC RELATED LINKS AGRO BLOG BUSINESS DISTRICT NEWS DISTRICT PROJECTS ENTERTAINMENT
FARMERS VIEW FOOD HYGIENE GENERAL NEWS INTERNATIONAL NEWS LOCAL NEWS MAASI NEWS NATIONAL NEWS
NATIONAL PROJECTS POLICY/RESEARCH POLITICS REGIONAL NEWS SCI/TECH/DEV/MAC. SOCIAL NEWS SPORTS
Uncategorized
ADVERTISEMENT

FAO holds mid-term review workshop in Accra

Sweet Potato Value Chain project viable in Ghana –
International Potato Centre

Lack of research blamed for army worm invasion

Close Down Somanya Abattoir: Krobea Asante

Farmers Must Adopt Good Farming Strategies

Samuel Kwame Agyekum confirmed DCE for
Asuogyaman

Ako Foundation slates May 17 for Young people in
Agribusiness Forum

Journalist Christopher Opoku Is Dead

My Family’s Criticism Forced Me to Attempt Suicide

Volta Region to lead cashew production

African youth take technology to agriculture

Bridging the Gender Gap in African Agriculture
DEOP
GtiCeshSIM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen>
FIND US ON FACEBOOK
All Rights Reserved. Rite 90.1FM Copyrights (c) 2014. Powered And Design By Global
Network Consult