Thanks to the work of AICCRA Ghana and our invaluable and growing network of partners, more than 258,000 Ghanaian smallholder farmers like Wungbree are now using validated climate-smart advisories and innovations to make informed farming decisions.

AICCRA Ghana bolsters the livelihoods of resource-poor farmers across Ghana and supports greater food security in the country through a partnership-led approach to improve farmers access to climate information services and the technology and innovation that underpins climate-smart agriculture.  

We do this incorporating gender and youth-sensitive approaches, resulting in over 35% of our beneficiaries being women and youth.

Highlights

National partners lead the way

Working with our digital platform and scaling partner Esoko, we are disseminating seasonal forecasts, pest and disease advisories and early warning announcements to more than 256,000 farmers via text and voice messages.

In collaboration with Crops Research Institute of Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CRI-CSIR) and the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MofA), AICCRA Ghana has established 31 demonstration plots to promote the adoption and uptake climate-smart innovations for maize, cowpea, sweet potato, tomato, and yam.  

Through farmer field days organised on these plots, we are reaching hundreds of farmers with climate-smart agriculture innovations. So far, more than 1,000 smallholder farmers have attended 21 farmer field days to learn about climate-smart crop varieties and One Health practices that ensure improved soil and plant health that leads to higher yield and income for the farmer.

Led by Ghana Meteorological Agency, we have partnered with community radio stations – which reach many women in remote communities – to deliver short-term and seasonal forecasts to farmers across the 22 AICCRA-Ghana intervention communities. 

Strengthening knowledge networks

We are constantly connecting existing local, regional, and international expertise to strengthen the technical, institutional, and human capacities of Ghanaian organisations.

As a result, 219 extension agents from the department of agriculture, lead and champion farmers from farmer-based organisations, and crop officers from Ministry of Food and Agriculture have been capacitated to support farmers to make climate-smart decisions on farm management such as land preparation, seed selection, soil treatment, planting, and harvesting.

AICCRA Ghana is facilitating public and private stakeholder partnerships to:

1. Operationalise the National Framework for Climate Services, a demand-led tool that will guide the creation and disseminated of climate services on a national scale to empower farmers to make climate-smart decisions.
2. Develop a national Early Warning & Rapid Response System for prompt identification, constant monitoring, and provision of updates on potential threats from pest and diseases.

With AICCRA’s support, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR-INSTI) is working with other stakeholders to develop and host the Agricultural Data (Ag-Data) Hub, a demand-driven digital data exchange platform for information and data sharing for fact-based decision making among players in the agricultural value chain, including smallholder farmers and policy makers.

Building on the track record of the CGIAR, we are working with Biotechnology and Nuclear Agricultural Research Institute of the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission, Crops Research Institute (CRI) Ghana, Centre for Agriculture and Biosciences International (CABI), and Plant Protection, and Regulatory Services Directorate (PPRSD) of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to scale One Health biopesticides (eg. Neem Leaf Extract), aeroponics generated seed yam to control viral infestation in yam farms, and disease-free sweet potato vines. This One Health platform is aligned to the Biorisk Management Facility (BIMAF), a CGIAR multi-stakeholder platform hosted by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Benin, West Africa.

Mainstreaming gender and social inclusion

Across 22 farming communities, AICCRA hosted Farmer Field Days to demonstrate how yields can be improved using climate information services, climate-smart agriculture and One Health innovations. 

Women farmers made up nearly half the participants, where notable innovations shared include new varieties of crops and planting methods. 

AICCRA Ghana is building local capacity through the promotion of innovations in agriculture in addition to ensuring that women are benefitting from Climate Smart Technologies and Climate Information Services in a gender transformative manner.

AICCRA Ghana is led by International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in collaboration with:

• Crops Research Institute of Council for Industrial and Scientific and Industrial Research
• Ghana Meteorological Agency
• University of Development Studies
• Biotechnology and Nuclear Agricultural Research Institute of the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission
• Plant Protection, and Regulatory Services Directorate (PPRSD) of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture
• Esoko
• International Partners with sub-agreements directly from IITA: Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International (CABI) and NIBIO

To learn more about AICCRA Ghana's activities, please contact:

Reginald Kyere, Communications Specialist - R.Kyere@cgiar.org

Further Reading

- Blog: Assessing soil health in Ghana to scale climate-smart agriculture

- Webinar: Gender Series: AICCRA Ghana on Access to Agriculture Services for Women Farmers