Agricultural Innovations for Climate Change Adaption and Food Security in Ghana and the Gambia: Policy Options

2011

English

It is recognised that climate change will impact Africa negatively and therefore will have dire consequences for food security. However agricultural innovations can be used to forestall this or minimise the impacts. Innovation is an interactive process involving various critical actors working in a given socio-economic and cultural system to bring about improvements or advances in the production of goods and services. Agricultural innovations therefore are the interactive processes as well as the products and services that are produced by this process. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2007) defines climate change as “a change in the state of the climate that can be identified (for example, by using statistical tests) by changes in the mean and/or variability of its properties, and that persists for an extended period, typically decades or longer”. Analysis by Agyeman-Bonsu et. al (2008) showed that both maximum and minimum air temperatures increased by 2.5 and 2.2°C respectively between 1961 and 2001in Ghana. Furthermore, the future climate change scenarios generated indicates that both the maximum and minimum temperatures increased over years in all agroclimatic zones of Ghana. The projections indicate that the average maximum temperature of the Sudan Savanna Zone is expected to increase by 3°C by the year 2100 and 2.5°C in all other agroclimatic zones. The average minimum temperature is expected to increase by 2.5°C in the Sudan Savanna, Guinea Savanna and the Semi-Deciduous Rainforest Zones by the year 2100. For the Transition and the High Rainforest zones, the minimum temperature is projected to increase by 3°C and 2°C, respectively, by the year 2100

Yamga, G. A.; Boadu, P.; Obiri, B. D.; Amoako, J.; Mboob, F. J.