Mr. Sarfo Benjamin, a researcher at the Peasant Farmers Association Ghana, has disclosed that the rampant outbreak of bush fires in the northern part of Ghana could threaten food security if proper training is not given to farmers in the north.
To curb the situation, the PFAG is set to faciliate a bush fire management training for farmers in the northern part of Ghana, he said. Speaking to the Vaultz news, Mr. Benjamin said in 2019, 2020, and 2021, the PFAG members in Bulisa South, Mamprugu Magduri, had their produce burnt off into ashes by bush fires leading to a significant loss. This has necessitated the PFAG to set up fire volunteers at hotspot fire-prone areas in the North to train farmers to avoid any possible dangers that could lead to bush fires this year.
Mr. Sarfo said that smallholder farmers are already burdened with many constraints in their farming activities. Hence it isn’t fair for their products to be consumed by bush fires at the end. This situation leaves farmers in a very terrible state.
“Challenges relating to lack of storage facilities, poor transportation from farm to homestead among others culminate to affect the fortunes of Smallholder farmers and the effect, in the long run, is bush fires destroying these produce. This is why PFAG wants to train the smallholder farmers in these fore pone areas to build their capacity to avoid any pending fire outbreak this 2022 cropping season.”
Mr. Sarfo Benjamin
Climate change is increasingly becoming a primary subject of study globally. The Ghana meteorological service has announced Ghana will experience some drought this year. Its effects are expected to impact differently in different sub-regions, with adverse impacts more pronounced in low input systems in the tropics. Crop production in Northern Ghana is mainly characterized by low-input farming and is dependent on rain-fed conditions. With the projected variability that is to be associated with climate change, smallholder farmers are likely to be adversely impacted.
With the increase in fertilizer prices on the domestic market, which is likely to take a toll on food productivity in the north, amidst the predicted drought likely to affect farmers this season, the food security status of people in the northern part of Ghana is already threatened.
Northern Region is termed the “food basket of Ghana”; hence all the needed support is to be given to smallholder farmers to equip them against bush fires. This is because if food production goes down in the northern part, it ripples down to the southern part of Ghana. The training will be held in the Ministry of Food And Agriculture’s Regional Conference hall, Bolgatanga at 9am on Wednesday 23 March 2022.
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