The World Bank Task leader, Mr. Salau delivering the welcome address

With increasing effects of climate change on the agriculture sector of Ghana, it is essential to develop new partnerships, as well as strengthen capacities of various stakeholders in the agricultural workstream. In this regard, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) in collaboration with the World Bank Group (WBG) and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) under the Adaptation of African Agriculture Initiative program organized a workshop (8^th and 9^th August 2019) to develop the Ghana Climate Smart Agriculture Investment Plan (CSAIP).

The inception workshop which took place at the WBG office in Accra brought together diverse experts from the academia, developmental organizations and governmental institutions to contribute to the development of initial inputs, characterization of scenarios and prioritization of CSA investments for Ghana’s Agricultural sector. The main goal of the CSAIP workshop was to introduce and set the stage for forward-looking planning for the agriculture sector in Ghana. The Ghana CSAIP is envisioned as a new approach to investment, policy decision-making, partnership and capacity strengthening to support the move towards a productive, resilient and low-emissions agricultural sector. The objectives for this workshop were in 3 folds and included:

1. Discussing the proposed CSAIP methodology and to develop a roadmap for its development;
2. Laying the technical foundations for the CSAIP work including the definition of a vision of the agricultural sector in the future, the type of climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices that could become relevant, and the likely future scenarios; and
3. Developing shortlist of potential CSA investment options.

In his welcome address,  the World Bank Task leader, Mr. Salau reiterated the goal of the WBG in reducing poverty and promoting shared growth, to which the government of Ghana has shown its commitments through various medium and long term programmes. He further emphasized the importance of the proceedings of COP 22 held in Morocco which called for actions to increase adaptation to climate change to guarantee food security. He concluded his address by urging the participants to treat the workshop as an opportunity to take stock, put in measures to mitigate and adapt to climate change impacts in the agricultural sector, as well as contribute to the development of the CSAIP which the government, private entities, and donor agencies could potentially fund.

In presenting on climate change impacts on agriculture and the Ghanaian economy, Dr. Jonathan Mockshell (CIAT) provided the current and future (2050) scenario analysis of the impacts of climate change on weather parameters (precipitation and temperature) and yields of key crops peculiar to the respective agro-ecological zones. With the scenarios predicted, as usual, a temperature increase and decreased precipitation for the three northern regions were observed. Dr. Mockshell further provided an overview of the Investment Planning Framework which has been adopted and applied in countries such as Cote D'Ivoire and Mali. The second presentation by Miss Padmini (FAO) focused on the FAO EX ACT TOOL application. The  FAO EX ACT TOOL is used to complement projects formulation by assessing the impacts of climate change as well as integrating climate mitigation concerns. Miss Padmini provided examples of countries and sectors where the tool has been applied, such as during the implementation of the ‘Potential Impact of Cocoa: Rehabilitation Scenario (2018-2023) Project’ in Ghana and enumerated the benefits of the EX ACT tool as follows:

1. Assesses the return on investment of proposed project interventions
2. Can be applied for project monitoring during mid-term
3. Results from the application of the tool have the potential for carbon credit applications and green label/certification.

Dr. Dylis McCarthy (University of Ghana) on the other hand highlighted the impacts of climate change on crop production and the key barriers to CSA adoption, as well the as scientific case studies on suitable CSA practices relevant for the Ghanaian agriculture sector. The final presentation by Dr. Terry Ansah (University for Developmental Studies) highlighted the importance of livestock production, the impacts of climate change, impact mitigation measures and proposed relevant research areas in support of livestock production.

The key note presentations were followed by two plenary presentations and discussions on climate change impact assessment model and an overview of CSA practices in Ghana and policy landscape by Professor Samuel Adiku (University of Ghana) and Mr. Kingsley Amoako (Ministry of Food and Agriculture) respectively.

Group activities following the presentations enabled participants to refine and validate a list of CSA investments for the identified sub-sectors: crops (annual and perennial) and livestock/ fisheries. The criteria  for the validation of the potential CSA investment areas encompassed the following characteristics or elements; value change commodity ( name of crop, livestock, fishery),  the agro-ecological zone designation, potential target (percentage increment yield or value chain addition), CSA practices or technologies in key-value chain segments (i.e. processing, marketing and service provision), justification and finally, the funding sources. In total, twenty-four CSA investments comprising of eight, six and ten proposed programmes for three sub-sectors; annual crops, perennial crops and livestock/fisheries. The identified long-list of CSA investment opportunities were prioritized, based on expert knowledge and validated prioritization criteria.

Suitable investment opportunities were identified for the respective sectors in line with the savannah, coastal savannah and forest zones based on identified and validated the assessment criteria for the CSA investment areas (programmes) (see table below).

A summary of CSA Investment areas (programmes)
Livestock and Fisheries	Annual Crops	Perennial Crops
Fish/Aquaculture productivity	Cereal productivity improvement	Improved planting materials
Enhanced Cattle Productivity	Postharvest management of cereals	Integrated cashew value chain development
Swine Production	Investment in climate-smart financial support to cereal production and value chain	Supply of improved planting materials
Small Ruminant	Value addition to cereals	Provision of improved planting materials
Livestock transportation, processing, and marketing	Investment in gender-sensitive CSA technologies	Post-harvest management
Vaccine and drug development	Investment in value addition of tubers	Value Chain Management
Aquaculture development	Investment in value chain of vegetables
Fingerling and Aquaculture Feed Production	CSA Services - 1 Crop Insurance 2. Improved weather forecast 3. Marketing information 4. Extension service delivery
Veterinary service provision

 

The proposed prioritization sub-criteria for the investments should be customized to suit the Ghanaian context.The workshop ended with participants expressing great enthusiasm in helping develop the CSAIP framework with support from the core team, while highlighting the following recommendations:

• There is the need to further identify other stakeholders who will be relevant in reviewing the draft CSAIP for feedback and inputs.
• There should be economic analysis conducted for proposed CSA investment options/practices.