By Anthony Adongo Apubeo
Bolgatanga, Nov. 22, GNA – Stakeholders in the agricultural sector have renewed calls for stronger national support for agroecology, describing it as a sustainable and cost-effective pathway to address climate change, reduce chemical dependency, and improve food safety in Ghana.
They asserted that agroecology, an approach that integrated ecological principles into farming, offered a long-term solution to rising chemical dependence, declining soil fertility, and the increasing cost of imported inputs.
The stakeholders, comprising Directors of the Department of Agriculture, Coordinating Directors, Planning and Budget Officers of the District Assemblies, and civil society organisations in the Upper East Region, made the call during an agroecology workshop held in Bolgatanga.
The workshop, which also included a field visit to an agroecological farm at Karemenga in the North East Region to expose the key stakeholders to practical knowledge of the concept, was organised by the Centre for Indigenous Knowledge and Organisational Development (CIKOD).
The engagement of officials from selected districts, including the Bongo District, Bolgatanga, and Kassena-Nankana Municipal Assemblies, was aimed at deepening their understanding of agroecology as both a climate adaptation and mitigation strategy.
According to the stakeholders, apart from the health risks associated with food produced using agrochemicals, the increasing use of chemicals continues to degrade the land and the environment, resulting in poor yields.
They added that climate change was causing excessive heat, erratic rainfall, and prolonged drought, but agroecology offered sustainable farming solutions rooted in local and indigenous knowledge.
Speaking at the event, Mr Wilberforce Laate, the Deputy Executive Director of CIKOD, expressed concern that Ghana’s agricultural model still relied heavily on chemical fertilisers and pesticides, resulting in rising cases of food poisoning linked to chemical residues in crops.
He warned that the country risked worsening public health outcomes if it did not urgently reduce its reliance on conventional, chemical-intensive farming.
“We are ingesting too many chemicals as a nation. The earlier we begin to reduce the level of chemical injection through conventional agriculture, the better it will be for all of us,” he said.
Drawing on his experience as an extension officer, Mr Laate emphasised that agroecology was built on indigenous practices such as recycling, crop-animal synergy, biodiversity conservation, and natural soil fertility enhancement.
He argued that if these practices were prioritised, farmers would rely less on imported inputs and the government could save substantial resources.
“We need to be intentional about it. If the Ministry of Agriculture develops a policy, it will help because many engineers and experts are already promoting agroecology,” he said.
“The Malabo Declaration’s 10 percent allocation to agriculture is mostly used to import fertilisers and chemicals, but if just a fraction of that is redirected to locally produced agroecological inputs, we could cut huge costs and reduce foreign exchange spending.”
He urged the government to invest in district-level piloting, capacity building, and local input production as immediate steps while national policy processes continue.
Ms. Fati Abigail Abdulai, the Executive Director of the Widows and Orphans Movement, noted that agroecology was the surest way to empower rural farmers, especially women, due to its cost-effectiveness and sustainability.
She, however, expressed concern that there was no direct budgetary allocation from central government for agricultural activities at the district level, stressing that the lack of funding had made agriculture largely donor-dependent and weakened the capacity of district assemblies to promote sustainable farming parctices.
She called on the government to prioritise agriculture and invest in the local and decentralised agencies to promote sustainable farming practices and knowledge.
Madam Juliana Talata Agyeyomah, the Bolgatanga Municipal Planning Officer, indicated that agroecology was a viable pathway to safeguarding the agricultural sector and called on the MMDAs to integrate agroecological practices into their programmes for scaling up.
GNA
Edited by Caesar Abagali/Christian Akorlie