I come from an Indian family, where the majority of them migrated from India to Africa before coming to the UK. This has subsequently resulted in there being a strong connection to Africa and its culture within my family. One country in particular is Ghana, and I now have many family members from there hence the interest in Ghana specifically. This post is slightly unrelated to the others, but after researching and writing about this, I was able to give
Agriculture, as a practice is declining gradually in Ghana, but it still holds a pivotal role in their economy. The relationship between different agricultural practices and environmental sustainability poses extreme challenges, but various development countries in Africa including Ghana, have given this topic very little attention.
Figure 1 - Agricultural Practices in Ghana (Source)
The impact of agricultural practices on sustainability in an environmental manner is becoming increasingly relevant in today's society as we can see from climate change, with their being almost a feeling of responsibility from the world to find a way to improve its sustainable development agenda (Kuhlman and Farrington, 2010).
Let's focus on Ghana specifically, where as a nation it relies significantly on agriculture with over the last 7 years its contribution to GDP has been almost 30%, whilst employing half of all people in rural communities and generates almost a quarter of all foreign exchange earnings (ISSER, 2013). Ultimately, agriculture is the backbone of Ghana's economy.
In the last 50 years or so, Ghana's environment has been massively degraded and hence received serious attention by various stakeholders in the economy. The extreme cost is equivalent to more than 10% of Ghana's GDP which is worth almost a billion US dollars (World Bank, 2006).
As we know, the world is in a severe predicament in relation to global climate change with a high emission of greenhouse gases and the earth's temperature is rising. However, what is more unknown is that Ghana was a carbon sink until the mid - 1990s, with the country's forest sequestering the carbon released into the atmosphere. Unfortunately, with the changing land - use, rapidly increasing population, and urbanisation the concentration of greenhouse gases has increased (Adomako and Ampadu, 2015).
Deforestation, arguably the most prevalent form of agricultural practice can have devastating impacts on environmental sustainability. In Ghana, forests have an essential role in the economy, and since the 1900s they covered 36% of the total land area, but there has been an annual loss of 20,000 hectares with a loss now at 90% of the original amount (Forestry Commission, 2005). Figure 2 illustrates the deforestation rate from 2001 to 2021, clearly showing over time the deforestation rates have significantly increased.
Figure 2 - Primary forest loss in Ghana from 2001 to 2021 (Source)
More than half of Ghana's land area is suitable for agricultural practices but the constant clearance of vegetation for food crops has led to huge problems like erosion, fertility depletion and salinisation, with estimates suggesting that just under 40% of active farmland suffers from soil loss due to this clearance (Angelsen and Kaimowitz, 2001).
Overall, it is clear to see that agricultural practices like deforestation and land clearing (many others including slash - burn - agriculture and soil and water management) pose risks and have incredibly negative effects on the goals and indicators related to environmental sustainability (Adomako and Ampadu, 2015).
The agricultural practices are just not sustainable and reduce the functioning of the ecosystem. I would recommend using more sustainable practices to try and enhance sustainability through processes that are more adaptable to rapid climate change.
I have really enjoyed researching more about Ghana and I look forward to sharing this post with my Ghanian family members. I have attacked a video which effectively portrays the agricultural sector in Ghana.
Yes, it was only after research that I found out about the carbon sink. It was after some discussion about the situation in Ghana with some of my uncles. It felt personal to me so I decided to pursue it further and was very interested as to what I found out. Make sure to watch the video!
The whole theme of water and development in Africa is one that I hold very close to my heart. At the age of 11, I went to Kenya to visit family and on this trip we went to a very rural farm and I found it fascinating to see how crops were grown and the methods they had involving irrigation. Although, at that time it was just an initial interest, school and university decisions have allowed me to develop this interest and transform it into a more concrete one. This first blog post I would like to address what I know already from a general standpoint and what I plan on talking about in future posts. One incident that stood out to me considerably was the Cape Town water crisis. The situation that a city that I have studied and heard all about was in a position where it could potentially have no water supply fascinated me. What is food security? It is ultimately describes a situation in which people have the access in terms of physical, social and economic access to safe and nutritious f
This next post is ultimately going to talk about and address the African food crisis. Although Africa is home to a diverse range of agricultural systems and resources, there are many African countries who are continuing to struggle with key issues like food insecurity, malnutrition and poverty, hence affecting millions across the continent. So, let's talk about one of the main contributing factors to the African food crisis. This is the lack of access to food sources that are affordable, diverse and nutritious (Burch, Fans and Frison 2011) . In many rural places, there are instances where smallholder farmers often lack the resources and the infrastructure that is required to produce and sell crops, hence leading to a reliance on imported or processed foods, which is more expensive and less nutritious (Dzvimbo, Monga and Mashizha, 2017) . This lack of access to healthy food options can result in malnutrition, particularly for the more vulnerable members of society, namely women, ch
It is interesting to see that Ghana used to be a carbon sink. Why did you focus on Ghana in particular?
ReplyDeleteYes, it was only after research that I found out about the carbon sink. It was after some discussion about the situation in Ghana with some of my uncles. It felt personal to me so I decided to pursue it further and was very interested as to what I found out. Make sure to watch the video!
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