Climate Change Threatens Local Farmers

Scientists, legal experts and members of the academia have held discussions to seek ways of mitigating the impact of climate change on agricultural productivity in the Ghana.

The meeting was informed by the inability to differentiate between climate change and environmental issues that have brought about some misunderstanding in the development of climate change adaptation policies and strategies, as they tend to be treated as environmental issues.

The Coordinator of the Ghana Environment and Climate Change Policy Action Node (GECCPAN), Dr. Nelson Obirih-Opare, said there is evidence to suggest that the country’s agriculture is already experiencing the negative impacts of climate change.

Research by Mc Sweeney et al observed conducted in 2010 and 2012, revealed that Ghana has already experienced an increase in mean annual temperature of 1?C per decade since 1960. Monthly rainfall decreased about 2.4% per decade during the same period, although in the 1960s, the rainfall over Ghana was particularly high, research has indicated.