Let us pay attention to the indigenous agroecological practices

Ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) in agriculture by smallholder farmers is a promising approach to fighting against the adverse effects of climate change.

Before I go into the details of this piece, I would like to define some key terms for purposes of clarity and layman’s understanding.

Here, EbA in the context of agriculture refers to the use of agricultural management practices that make use of biodiversity, ecosystem services (e.g., provisioning, regulating, supporting, and cultural services) at the farm level to help increase the ability of crops or livestock to adapt to climate change.

For climate change, it means a long-term change in the average weather patterns (regarding temperature, rainfall, and wind) that have come to define local, regional, and global climates of the planet that are usually caused by human activities. Smallholder farmers hereby refer to those farmers who have 2 hectares or less of farmlands for a diversity of crops and mainly use traditional or informal tenure systems.

The human activities such as illegal small-scale mining (Galamsey) operations on/nearby farmlands, exploration of oil and gas as well as deforestation pose a lot of problems for smallholder farmers, leading to low food production to feed the country. Despite the low capability and high vulnerability of smallholder farmers, they are still able to cope with and adapt to prevailing climate conditions negatively affecting their farming practices.

That means the traditional model of farming can help protect soils, plant, and animal species on farmlands and surrounding natural environments. Thus, the use of EbA in agriculture by smallholder farmers is a promising approach to fighting against the adverse effects of climate change. Unfortunately, this aspect of EbA strategies has not been well explored in Ghana and Sub-Saharan Africa.

There is, therefore, a need to carry out further studies in the use of biodiversity and ecosystems by smallholder farmers in their farming practices to produce nature-based solutions to effectively tackle the negative impacts of climate change.

Studying such a promising EbA approach to farming will also provide valuable information to policymakers to help reduce the vulnerability of smallholder farmers and increase their resilience in a sustainable manner.

In a nutshell, the EbA strategies of smallholder farmers will ensure sustainable agriculture by diversifying production systems and ensuring the continued provision of ecosystem services on which their farming depends in the face of extreme climatic events e.g., highly variable rainfall, increased temperature, and frequent drought incidences.

Let us pay attention to the indigenous agroecological practices and knowledge base of smallholder farmers, who are the major producers of food for consumption in Ghana and beyond.