ASSAR builds Climate Advisory Resource Center for farmers in Lawra, Nandom

Adaptation at Scale in Semi-Arid Region (ASSAR) has through it project established Climate Advisory resource Center at Nandom and Lawra MoFA offices.

The information center which was established and launched in August in 2018, was introduced to the farmers on Monday, 21st October 2018. The Climate Advisory Center contains training videos on climate change adaptation and sustainable agriculture practices to equip extension officers with equipment to reach out to farmers.

The center comes with mobile information device that is taken to the farmer in their various homes and farms for demonstration.

The Climate Advisory Resource Center is part of a five-year project ASSAR embarked on in both Nandom and Lawra districts. The ASSAR project was aimed at understanding barriers and enablers for agricultural intensification, food security and climate change adaption in Semi-arid regions in Upper West region.

The project which is research oriented saw 12 MPhil and 6 PhD students carried out various researches in the two districts. The students researched in the area of Migration and remittances, Land rights and tenure system, ruminant production and its challenges, adaptation and gender and women capacity building among others.

As part of the project, the students presented their outcome of their research to the communities in the district with various recommendations. The idea is to engage the communities to also benefit from the outcome and recommendations of the research from the students.

Speaking at a stakeholder meeting in Lawra organized by ASSAR, Prince Ansah, a technical officer on the ASSAR project, indicated that as part of completing the ASSAR project in Lawra and Nandom districts, they intend to let the two districts benefit from the outcome of the research.

He added that ASSAR will act on the recommendations by the researcher and support the farmers in the district to adapt to the impact of climate change.

He said, “Already, ASSAR Ghana has used the various information from researches and stakeholders engagements to build the capacity of women and farmer groups. ASSAR has been strengthening women and farmer groups by formalizing the various groups in the two districts in order to enable them access government NGO intervention as well as credit facilities”.

Prince Ansah ended by entreating government and other organizations to support farmers especially those in the Semi-arid regions to adapt to the impact of climate change and be food secured.

Meanwhile, ASSAR has also through its project developed a Mobile APP called Adaptation Hub for Upper West, Upper East and Northern regions.

The app is aimed at sharing information with stakeholders like extension officers and development agencies on climate change and food security.

ASSAR also embarked on school competition in Senior High Schools to create awareness on climate change adaptation.