The Safe For All Africa (SAFE4All) rolls out a climate information Application “ChatBox” today in some selected communities in the Northern Region to provide weather information to farmers.
This will help revolutionise farming practices in northern Ghana, where farmers face severe climate-related challenges.
Targeting all the five regions in the north, the initial rollout in the selected communities will test the application’s effectiveness and how easily farmers understand it and make use of the data.
Speaking at a workshop in Accra on Thursday, Associate Professor of Agriculture Economics at the University for Development Studies, Sylvester Ayambila, said the innovative app, designed to provide critical weather information, aims to enhance food security, mitigate migration, and improve the livelihoods of farmers in the region.
According him, a recent needs assessment survey conducted by the group showed that 47 per cent of youth in northern Ghana use smartphones, providing a viable platform for the app’s dissemination.
However, he noted that the survey also revealed significant disparities in mobile phone usage and education levels between men and women where a few number of women were using mobile phones and most were uneducated, highlighting the need for targeted interventions to address these gaps.
The app, which integrates local knowledge with scientific data, Prof. Ayambila stated that it would provide farmers with actionable insights on weather patterns, enabling them to make informed decisions about planting, fertiliser application, and crop management.
“So the app will inform farmers whether it’s going to rain on this day and this is the amount of rain expected or that it’s not going to rain the next one week or two weeks, maybe they can postpone their planting time,” he elaborated.
Additionally, he said providing weather information to farmers, particularly in northern Ghana was crucial, where droughts and erratic rainfall patterns had devastating impacts on farming communities.
A Senior Meteorologist at the Ghana Meteorological Agency (GeMET), Mr David Quaye, underlined that GeMET partnered with the SAFE4All project to enhance climate resilience among farmers, promoting sustainable crop production and food security in the country.
He noted that the agency was committed to providing critical weather information to farmers, enabling them to make informed decisions about crop selection, planting, and management.
The Policy Advisor for the SAFE4All project, Dr James Natia Adam, said the project which sought to improve farming practices and food security in the northern part of the country would help address rural-urban migration.
He noted research had revealed that existing data on migration in Ghana did not adequately capture the impact of climate change, to address this, the project aims to advocate for the inclusion of climate change-induced migration data in the Ghana Statistical Survey.
A Project Partner, Climate Adaptation Services, Dr Hasse Goosen, indicated that SAFE4All was a groundbreaking initiative to enhance climate resilience and food security across Africa, funded by the European Union to transform the lives of farmers in Ghana, Kenya, and Zimbabwe by providing them with critical climate information.
BY CECILIA YADA LAGBA
