To augment the efforts of government in maintaining a favourable climate for agricultural activities, a programme dubbed, “Resilience Against Climate Change,” (REACH) has been launched at Wa in the Upper West Region.
The programme is an initiative of European Union (EU) delegation in Ghana in collaboration with the Deutsche Gesellschaft for Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) through the Competitive Cashew Initiative and the International Water Management Institute.
The REACH which forms part of the EU-Ghana National Indicative programme called, Productive Investment for Agriculture in Savannah Ecological Zones and preaches good environmental practices to protect the climate would be used to enhance the production of commercial crops like cashew which thrives well under good climate.
With funding from the 11th European Development Fund, REACH would focus on improving the capacities of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies on strategic environmental assessment in conjunction with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Launching the REACH as part of the first Agribusiness fair in the Upper West Region, a team leader for the EU REACH, Mr Florian Winckler hinted that the project would facilitate the development and implementation of community action plans with substantive funding mechanism.
“Additionally it will contribute to the setting up of training and extension of Conservation of Agriculture in the Savannah, increasing profitability of agribusiness by offering services that enable conservation agriculture practices,” Mr Winckler stated, adding that the training would be done in collaboration with the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development.”
He emphasized on the need to adopt environmental-friendly agricultural practices in the course of farming to enhance plant growth.
For his part, Senior Researcher of the REACH Social Transformation and Policy Advocacy, Mr Everisto Mapedza announced that a number of scholarship slots would be opened at the University for Development Studies (UDS) and the University of Ghana in Accra for people who qualify to pursue further studies on the subject matter and later assist in the implementation of the REACH project.
He said the scholarships would be skewed towards females to promote more women in the sector.
Participants who were given the opportunity to make contributions after the launch appealed to the implementers to put in place measures to check the illegal logging of trees, particularly the Rosewood from the region.
LYDIA DARLINGTON FORDJOUR, WA
