Five percent of Ghanaians face food insecurity

Dr. Mathew Kwabena Nkrumah, a Senior Lecturer of the University for Development Studies (UDS) has indicated that about 1.2 million people in Ghana, representing five percent of the total population, were facing food insecurity. Thirty-four percent of the population in the Upper West Region were worse affected by the situation, he said.

He said 15 percent of the people in the Upper East also face food insecurity, while parts of the Northern, Western and Central Regions were also facing similar problems all as a result of the negative effects of climate change.

Dr. Nkrumah said 40 percent of South Sahara Africa would be at risk of a significant decline in crop and pasture production, while 35-370 million people were likely to be malnourished by 2020 due to climate change.

Dr. Nkrumah was addressing a three-day workshop on ecosystem and community resilience and climate change in West Africa, in Tamale on Tuesday.

The workshop was sponsored by African Biodiversity Network (ABN) and hosted by Regional Advisory Information and Network Systems (RAINS) with participants from civil society groups, institutions and traditional rulers from Benin, Burkina Faso, Togo and Ghana.

The workshop is aimed at bringing to the fore the attention of stakeholders and governments about the problems climate change causes to the natural environment and livelihood as well as how communities and ecosystems are likely to be impacted.

Dr. Nkrumah said governments across the globe had paid little attention to climate change, but the effects of the climate change affects almost every aspect of human life, exacerbating and reducing the lifespan of natural creatures.

He said until proper management and utilization methods are adopted to reduce the impact of climate change like proper farming practices, conservation of water bodies, minimal usage of fossil fuel among others, the effects would be very disastrous to livelihoods.

Mr. Million Belay, Coordinator for Cultural Biodiversity under the African Biodiversity Network stressed the need for African countries to strengthen research institutions to conduct periodic researches into the effects of climate change and implement findings to protect its citizens.

He said the survival of agriculture in Africa is greatly affected by unstable weather patterns reducing crop yield and post harvest losses, thereby increasing the yearly misery of farmers on the continent.

Mr. Belay said increases in technology also increases global disasters, stressing that, "Almost everybody wants to own a car but the impact of carbon emission from energy use of these cars is little thought about".

He raised the concern that Africa is most vulnerable to the negative effects of climate change and also faces greatest challenges of adaptation saying "Most of the high emissions are produced and emitted to the atmosphere by the Western countries but Africa suffers most from its effects".

Mr. Belay said poverty, conflicts, diseases, governance problems, an unjust international trading systems and the burden of unplayable debt hinder the ability of communities and nations to handle shocks of climate change in Sub-Sahara Africa.