Ghana’s rice production will fall due to climate change – Experts
Ghana is likely to experience a shortfall in rice production due to erratic rainfall and excessive heat.
The nation’s policy makers must therefore take mitigation and adaptation measures to ensure that the agriculture sector is not ravaged by the effects of climate change.
Climate change watchers at a Media forum in Koforidua on Friday, who made this known, indicated that climate change brought about drought, floods as well as depletion of aquifers, which guarantee underground water.
Mr Ronald Abrahams, of the Water Resources Commission (WRC), said while industrialised or developed countries used more water in their industrial production, poor countries including Ghana used more water for agricultural purposes.
He said currently the world was faced with water crisis where groundwater over drafting was leading to diminished agricultural yields.
He urged journalists to focus on issues that directly affect the Ghanaian populace due to climate change to create awareness and the needed responses in policy making and implementation.
Mr Mohamed Alhassan, a Senior Town Planning Officer, Town and Country Planning Department, said there was global evidence that drastic changes in the climate was threatening biodiversity through risk of floods, droughts, diseases and reduced food production.
According to him, vegetation for instance was being consumed by urban sprawl resulting in increased demand for energy, congested roads as per capita waste generation increased without the needed capacity for its management.
He concluded that effects of urbanization and climate change were converging in dangerous ways that threaten the country’s economic and social stability which must be brought to the attention of policy makers and the general public by the media.
The Forum was organised by the Eastern Regional branch of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) and the Media Capacity Development Project of the Africa Adaptation Programme (AAP), to sensitise the media on climate change issues and how they relate to water and food production.
Source: GNA