National Workshop On Agroecology And Climate Change Held In Techiman

Centre for Indigenous Knowledge and Development (CIKOD) has held a two day National Stakeholders workshop to deliberate on adaptation and mitigation measures for climate change.

Participant at the workshop includes members from the small scale farmers’ association, Peasant farmers association, civil society organization, officers from the Department of Agriculture in the Bono and Ahafo regions, Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa, as well as members from saving our environment Foundation, among others.

Dr. Antwi Bosiako Amoah, deputy director at the Environmental Protection Agency in charge of the climate change department took participant through a series of presentations of research findings on Agroecology and climate change.

He disclosed that the National Climate Change Adaptation Strategy (NCCAS) is a strategic policy initiative aimed at creating an environment for more informed and capable adaptation decisions and practices in Ghana.

He further explained the guiding principles of the NCCAS, the priority adaptation programme, the Paris agreement, nationally determined Contribution (NDC’s) as well as the climate-smart Agriculture and food security action plan (CSAFSAP).

On his part, Mr. Bernard Guri the executive director of CIKOD took participant through a discussion on hotspots and hubs in the ecological zone and urge them to open up and invite more members to fast rack the Agroecology movement.

Mr.Tontie Binado, regional programme manager for action Aid Ghana in charge of the Bono and Ahafo regions. In his submission compared Agroecology to other systems of Agriculture such as traditional agriculture, and that of conventional Agriculture for members to see the need to practice Agroecology in other to save this country.

He stressed that Agroecology is fundamentally different from other approaches to sustainable development because it is based on bottom-up and territorial processes, helping to deliver a contextualized solution to local problems.

Dr. Charles Kwome Nyaaba, head of programmes and advocacy of the peasant farmers association Ghana made a presentation on the framework for movement building and urged strongly for enhanced collaborative partnership among like-minded organization with strong institutional capacity mobilizations and advocacy influencing Agriculture policy and food systems to push for Agroecology at the National and sub-regional levels.

At the end of the meeting participants unanimously agreed to form a movement and solicit for more members to strengthen the advocacy for Agroecology in the country.