The effects of climate change and variability on water availability in Ghana is being felt throughout the country. Coping with water scarcity has become a major issue. Most communities in the Offin River basin are rural with no pipe-borne water, and consist predominantly of farmers who depend on irrigation for their crops. The basin provides the communities with water for drinking, and for other economic activities. Benjamin Apraku Gyampoh, Monica Idinoba and Steve Amisah look at livelihood options to cope with water scarcity as the climate situation worsens in the coming years. Development (2008) 51, 415–417. doi:10.1057/dev.2008.46
Agriculture is one of the sectors most susceptible to changes in climatic conditions. The impact is even stronger in Africa, where rain-fed agriculture is vital for daily subsistence, but where adaptive capacity is low. It is therefore crucial to increase the understanding of the actual climate change dynamics on agricultural productivity. This study examined the effects of changes in climatic variables such as rainfall and temperature on maize production in the Ejura-Sekyedumase Municipality, Ghana. Regression, chi-square and trend analyses were used to establish the relationship between climate variables (rainfall and temperature) and maize yield in the study area. This was supplemented with participatory household interviews with 120 farmers to understand the perception of farmers on rainfall and temperature patterns. The results from the study respondents and trend analysis show that rainfall is shorter in terms of duration and less predictable, whilst temperature has increased. The findings suggest that the general relationship between rainfall, temperature and maize yield is such that maize yield increased with increasing rainfall of the right amount and distribution pattern and decreased with increasing temperature. The study concludes that climate variability and/or change is evident in the study area and its effect on maize yield is severe.
Increasing demand on water resources, reduced land water availability, and concerns over food security have spurred the evolution of many innovative and complex food production. An aquaponic system is a productive, innovative, and sustainable fish and vegetable production system that is revolutionizing agriculture in the face of drought, soil fertility losses, and climate change. Aquaponics, as an advanced aquaculture-agriculture system, is expected to improve food security in developing countries. However, as an emerging technology, there is very limited information on the system in Africa. Questions about the ecological and socio-economic sustainability of aquaponics are answered in this comprehensive review. This review considers aquaponics projects in Africa, categorizes the technology by evidences of their effectiveness, fish and plant yields, and juxtaposes the technology within best-use practices to make recommendations that will inform evidence-based policymaking. It also maps the present spatial adoption of the technology in sub-Saharan Africa and highlights the system's contribution to improving food security on the continent. Egypt and South Africa are countries where aquaponics is emerging and being adopted at faster rates and contributing to food security. In West Africa, significantly lower net-discounted benefit-cost ratios were realized when aquaponics systems were constructed using imported materials compared to using locally available materials. Despite aquaponics systems generally having higher start-up costs currently, its potential to be economically viable when undertaken with local materials is very high.
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