FARMERS SCHOOLED ON EFFECTS OF LAND DEGRADATION (PAGE 20)

THE quest for the creation of a conducive environment to mitigate land degradation and promote sustainable land management in northern Ghana depends to a large extent on the capacities of farmers in the area to understand and appreciate the nitty-gritty of land issues.
For that reason, agricultural scientists and researchers have teamed up and evolved effective strategies aimed at updating the knowledge and skills of farmers in the north as a way of building their capacities to help address land degradation so as to impact positively on agricultural biodiversity in the area in particular and the country at large.
It is gratifying to note that farmers in the northern part of the country have been given that opportunity to help address the challenges of land degradation through the implementation of the Sustainable Land Management for Mitigating Land Degradation (SLAM) project that was started in the country in 2005.
To date, the SLAM project has developed a methodology based on joint farmer-scientist perceptions for identifying and prioritising threatened lands, and criteria for identifying sustainable land management.
Other strategies developed under the SLAM project was educating farmers on good and best land management practices applied to recover degraded lands, protect those lands under threat, and enhance their ecological functions, agricultural production capacity and improve on rural livelihoods.
Major training for farmers in the north under the project include composting, weed management, nursery and plantation management, soil and water management, catchments protection and the identification of contours and construction of buns on the contours.
This training was followed by the planting of several thousands of seedlings in the Tolon-Kumbungu and Garu-Tempane Districts of the Northern and Upper East regions.
It is worthy to note that in the four years of its existence, SLAM has contributed significantly to sustainable ecosystem-based integrated land management for greater ecosystem stability, enhanced food security and improved rural livelihoods.
The project was based on research work in Ghana’s major agro-ecological zones.
It was funded mainly by the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) executed by the government and implemented by a United Nations Development Programme-supported consortium of scientists from various institutions led by the University of Ghana, Legon in Accra and the University for Development Studies (UDS) in the northern Ghana.
At Nyankpala in the Tolon-Kumbungu District recently, farmers were sensitised to the best sustainable land management practices as part of the SLAM project.
The aim was, among other objectives, to discuss best land management practices identified by scientists, researchers and farmers.
The beneficiary farmers admitted at the end of the interaction that they had had fruitful discussions that enabled them to understand the issues involved in land management and pledged to contribute meaningfully to the realisation of the objectives of the SLAM project.
Undoubtedly, land degradation threatens the global environment and humanity, especially through deforestation, biodiversity loss and climate warming.
In Ghana, 70 per cent of the land experiences severe heat and gully erosion, which have become the major constraint on agricultural productivity.
Biodiversity lost through deforestation and land degradation amounts to four per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
At the national and local levels, accelerated degradation threatens livelihoods, especially through soil erosion.
Explaining the benefits of the SLAM project on northern Ghana vis-a-vis farmers’ role in reducing land degradation, the National Project Co-ordinator, Professor Edwin Gyasi, stated that it was imperative for farmers to plant more trees by applying such farm practices as mixed farming and mixed cropping.
He stressed that farmers must avoid applying the same practices every planting season as they had the tendency of degrading land resources.
“Climate change poses a lot of threat to the survival of mankind; that is why the natural ecosystem must be improved as well as modifying the way we manage land resources,” he noted.
Professor Gyasi further explained that improvement in the quality of land regarding soil fertility, bio-diversity, water condition and general vegetative cover would ultimately enhance agricultural productivity, increase income levels for farmers and improvement in their quality of life.
“The expected reduction in the loss of bio-diversity should also help make available more fuel wood, wildlife, medicinal plants and improvement in the aesthetic quality of the land,” he noted.
The co-ordinator indicated that the extreme dry season, excessive rainfall patterns, tidal waves and other extreme weather conditions could be reduced to the barest minimum if farmers and other stakeholders took land degradation issues seriously.