Climate Change and Resiliency

Climate change is a big challenge and threat to Ghana’s agricultural development. The weather is variable and unpredictable with frequent episode of unusual weather events such as floods, drought and diseases. This component seeks to develop and enhance community-based climate change adaptation initiatives and supportive policy measures that improve food security and health among rural communities in the arid and semi-arid regions of Ghana. While doing these, communities must also be resilient to climate change shock. These shocks can be anything from a natural disaster, to a food price spike or outbreak of disease. Some come suddenly while others are predictable. And some are more severe while others slowly erode farmers’ ability to farm. Increasing community resiliency will require a drastic action from both Future connect Ghana and its partners to promote Climate Smart Agriculture and Green Communities Initiative in climate affected communities, through best practices, particularly an integrated crop management (ICM), Conservation Agriculture (CA) and Agroforestry.

Projects: GREEN COMMUNITIES PROJECT (GCP) – ½ year

 Sustainable Communities and Poverty Reduction

Building sustainable community is not just the development of the economic vitality of communities but also the improvement of quality of life in society and the protection of environment as well. However, in order to achieve the “Sustainable Community” goal, it would largely depend on the conditions of economic, environmental and social factors in the communities.

Sustainable agriculture is at the center of the work we do because of the long-term jobs that will be created alongside, which is also vital to poverty reduction. Promoting sustainable agriculture is about creating viable rural livelihoods, whilst feeding a global population and conserving the natural environment. At Future Connect, we are keen to meeting each of these challenges.

Youth in Agriculture

The agricultural labor force is ageing worldwide, yet rural youth unemployment is also an increasing concern. Thus, FCG work in rural communities to show young people, the huge potential that careers in agriculture can offer them and break the circle of poverty in their generation. Agriculture is a growing sector and in need of talents, talents that young people have and must be harnessed to address the world’s biggest challenges. This is a sector that is full of innovation and opportunity and worth pursuing.

Agriculture and the Green Economy

In Ghana, agriculture accounts for 40.65% (increasing at a decreasing rate) of employment, 69% of land use (according to the world bank, 2014), 70% of water use and up to 53% of greenhouse gas emissions. Most farmers live in poor rural communities. Growth from agriculture is at least twice as effective in reducing poverty than growth from any other sector, and it has one of the highest potentials to mitigate carbon emissions.

 Science Research and Innovation

We need 70 per cent more food to feed a population of nine billion by 2050. We must increase productivity and reduce waste. That is why Future Connect Ghana supports farmers to share knowledge through our farmer to farmer mentorship programs. We ensure that farmers access the training and inputs they need, to sustainably increase the quantity, quality and diversity of their crops. We also support farmers to adapt to changing weather patterns, keep soil fertile and to tackle pests through our climate smart agriculture project initiatives. We are achieving these gradually through Agricultural science research and innovations. The future of agriculture is today, thus, farmers, food and bio-based industries, foresters, etc. need these new knowledge and innovation to face the challenge head on.

 

Projects:

RESEARCH (Analysis of Smallholder Farmers market Participation and the role of policy and institutions). – ½ year

Value Chains Development and Enhancement

Through this programme, Future Connect Ghana works with key actors across prioritized commodities to address key constraints at both the supply and demand side of the value chain; Our work enhances the commodities value chain by stream lining the inputs and outputs services; support both value addition and value capturing; and enhance participation by smallholder farmers and SMEs and commercial firms in the value chains; and in commercialization of commodities. The projects Future Connect Ghana implemented under this programme are;

Projects:

  1. COMMUNITY COOPERATIVE POULTRY SCHEME (2COPS Project) – 1year pilot
  2. FARMER OUTGROWER SCHEME (FOS Project) – 1year Pilot

Policy and Advocacy

Policy and advocacy play an important role, keeping in line with Future Connect Ghana’s vision of being committed to advancing towards building sustainable communities and youth in agriculture, while maintaining the product of environmental stewardship leads through various farmer training programs and engaging meaningfully with different stakeholders across the country to enhance farmers’ prosperity and contributing to food security. In our recent policy and advocacy campaign strategy, we work with the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmer Cooperative networks on “Produce Quality and grain Standardization”, through various initiatives targeted at farmers and aggregators.