Gone are the days when Ghanaian farmers sowed in May to await the rains in June and July or when they had the certainty of harvesting before and during the dry season.
Currently the changes in our weather patterns and climate have made it impossible to predict when to sow and when to reap which is affecting crop yield and productivity considering the increasing number of mouths farmers are required to feed these days.
The current population of Ghana in 2023, stands at 34,121,985, a 1.93% increase from 2022’s 33,475,870 and coupled with the eye-opening COVID-19 crisis, there’s the need to enhance our food security, but how do our farmers do that when they can no longer predict when there’s going to be rain or shine.
Here’s how.
Every farmer needs to accept that the world is changing and so is our climate. A few days in February and we experienced an unusual harmattan in Ghana which many didn’t see coming, as a result, there’s the need to understand and study the new climate patterns so as to plan towards it. One way to do that is to listen to our meteorological experts concerning the weather and to also be ready to change their traditional farming ways to adapt to these new changes. This may mean we might be harvesting in January or planting in June if the climate calls for it.
In addition to changing our old ways and making room for new methods, vertical farming may be the way to combat the issue of climate change. Vertical farming looks at growing crops upwards on top of each other and not horizontally in the soil like we know to do. With vertical farming, crops are often grown in warehouses in a controlled environment where the farmer doesn’t only have control on when it rains or shines but also the temperature, meaning how much rain or shine the crops should be exposed to with the use of artificial intelligence and monitored sensors.
Also, with vertical farming little to no soil is used sometimes which contributes to sustainable agriculture and maximum productivity.
As we continue to plant more trees, and practice sustainable farming, greenhouses gases and carbon compounds which lead to climate change will decrease, leading us towards EU’S net-zero project by 2063
Comments are closed.