Climate Change Awareness and Adaptation Workshop for Smallholder Farmers

Admin April 22, 2024

EcoHeal

Sefwi Bodi, Ghana: In the wake of the ravaging effects of climate change and its prevailing impacts on countries, rural communities and vulnerable populations have been projected to suffer the most even though they contribute minimally to these damages. This means increasing climate change awareness among indigenous populations is essential to help them improve their preparedness towards climate disasters. Additionally, traditional communities play a key role in helping to mitigate these risks through their conservational approaches. Because of this, TICSEP organized an intensive training on climate change risk and response management in farming enterprises for peasant farmers in the village of Otwum Ntakwaa with a population of 150 people in Sefwi Bodi, Ghana. The indigenous community lies within a significant Sui Forest fringe, and they have a crucial role to play in maintaining the integrity of the forest ecosystem even us their farming activities equally compete with the forest for space. At the training, participants were led to enumerate some benefits they derived from living near the forest and how they could help maintain its integrity and safety. Their increased knowledge of how their farm expansions shrink the forest size exposes wildlife to hunting, and extinction was simulated. How their land cultivation methods such as the burning of fields causes bushfire was understudied. After the identification of these triggers, they were further trained on improved and efficient techniques for preventing or managing climate disasters locally. To limit the increasing uncertainties of weather conditions, farmers were encouraged to increase reliance on routine updates from the Ministry of Food and Agriculture as well as other relevant bodies. This would help them limit their losses due to unfavourable weather conditions. After the training, some take-home tips arrived at included not farming closer to the banks of the forests, creating wider fire belts to contain fires in the events that they cannot be avoided, incorporating tree planting into their crop farming, and reafforestation of abandoned farmlands due to poor fertilities. The cultivation of fields earlier enough before the onset of the rainy season was encouraged to help limit the need to burn debris and rather offer ample time for decomposition and improved soil fertility. Since the forest already offered them tangible services such as herbs for medicine, wild foods, mushrooms, and bush meats, they were orientated to diligently protect for continued benefits. A total of about 20 farmer group leaders participated in the workshop for onwards relay of lessons learnt to their members.

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