Bongo District Gets 4 Climate Change Adaptation Projects for Food Security

By Samuel Akapule, Bongo

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Four Adaptation Climate Fund Sub-Projects have been launched at the Aliba Community in the Bongo District of the Upper East Region to increase incomes and guarantee food sufficiency.

They are dry season gardening, Integrated Beekeeping and Environmental Protection (IBEP), fishing and tree growing.

The one year sub-projects being implemented in Yidongo, Gorigo, Adaboya, Vea, Amanga, Kukua and Aliba communities are climate change adaptation focused and aimed at increasing household's incomes and reducing food insecurity especially among women.

The projects are being implemented by META Foundation, LINK Ghana, Rural Education and Agriculture Development International (READI) and the Community Self Reliance Centre (COSREC), all Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) with funding from the Adaptation Fund Project (AFP) of the United Nations Development Programme ( UNDP).

The Ministry of Environment Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI) through the Upper East Regional Directorate of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is providing monitoring and supervisory services.

Launching the projects on last Friday at the Aliba Community, the District Chief Executive for Bongo, Mr Peter Ayamga Ayinbisa, lauded the projects and stated that the district was one of the hardest hit when it comes to climate change.

He expressed the optimism that not only would the interventions help empower the communities to adopt to climate change, but would also help contribute to the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals of ending hunger, poverty and climate change.

The paramount chief of the Bongo Traditional area who is also the vice president of the Regional House of Chiefs, Naba Baba Salifu Alemyarum, impressed upon the beneficiary communities to embrace the project and stressed that the selected projects for the district had the greatest potentials of wealth creation.

The Programme Manager of META Foundation, Mr David Amozebega, said his outfit which was in charge of the dry season gardening project would build the capacity of the communities to establish tomato, pepper and onion seedlings and support them with modernise agricultural practices to conduct farming activities during the dry season.

He indicated that considering the role of women in food security and household livelihoods interventions, the project has targeted at least 60 per cent of the beneficiaries to be women, adding that the project would also consciously work to ensure that the youth and vulnerable groups, such as the physically challenged persons become an integral part of the project.

The Northern Regional Manager of LINK Ghana, Mr Daniel A. Kansake, stated that LINK Ghana with its Bee Project, would implement some key activities including the procurement of beehives and accessories for the beneficiary communities, conduct beekeeping training, site, clear and install hives, building the capacity of the communities in trapping of bees, management of hives, harvesting and marketing and conduct Gender Baseline Analysis.

He said the project which would target 150 farmers made up of 100 female and 50 men, had the overall objective to improve environmental sustainability and household income of more than 150 farmers through bee keeping.

The regional manager expressed worry about the situation where many farmers set fire on grass in an attempt to trap bees for honey and indicated that the practice often led to the contamination of the honey and bush burning beyond control.

He said the project would promote environmentally-friendly methods of honey production and apiculture, as well as increase the production of high quality honey for both the local and international markets.

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