The Centre for Migration Studies (CMS), University of Ghana, has disseminated research findings on climate change and migration governance under the Governing Climate Mobility (GCM) project in the Yilo Krobo Municipality of the Eastern Region.
The dissemination workshop held in Somanya was organised for community members, farmers, staff of the Municipal Directorate of Agriculture, the Municipal Assembly and other key stakeholders.
The GCM project was funded by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (DANIDA) with additional support from the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS) and the study was carried out in Ghana and Ethiopia.
The Governing Climate Mobility study organised in Ghana focused on two Regions where Yilo Krobo was among the districts chosen in the Eastern Region.
In Ghana, the Principal Investigator of the GCM project was Professor Joseph K. Teye at the CMS, and Dr. Francis Jarawura, the Researcher also at the CMS.
Mr. John Narh, Researcher at the Centre for Migration Studies and the facilitator said the programme aimed to share GCM findings and facilitate policy dialogue among stakeholders of climate change, migration and agriculture in the Yilo Krobo Municipality.
According to the findings, he said, the percentage distribution of migrant status in the Municipality showed that 71 per cent of the respondents were natives and 29 per cent were migrants.
Crop farming is the main source of livelihood for more than 80 per cent of the selected households.
He said the study also showed that 75 per cent of the selected households in the municipality had at least one member who had temporarily or permanently migrated due to lack of access to farmlands in the rural communities, drought, or marriage, seek jobs and further education.
He said while more than 90 per cent of respondents had been affected in the last five years by climate change hazards such as drought, irregular rain, crop pests and diseases only 12.5 per cent received some form of support, mainly from family and friends to address the consequential livelihood challenges of the hazards.
In many study communities, the central government did not support affected households directly.
Regarding issues of immobility during the research, Mr. Narh noted that, some respondents wanted to migrate but they were not able to.
He quoted one of their research participants who said, “We have already grown in this and have adapted to the system. Even though it is not comfortable, most of us cannot migrate to the city because we cannot do some of the jobs that are available in the city. For example, I cannot run after a car to sell sachet or bottled water to a passenger.”
Another research participant was quoted, “I will not migrate from this community because I have wife and children here. Also, I have mango farms here and I need to be around to maintain my farm.”
He said the research findings concluded that climate change had serious effects on livelihood and it was pertinent to support farmers to adopt in-situ adaptation strategies such as irrigation and smart agriculture.
He recommended that instead of discouraging people from moving out of environmentally degraded areas, policy makers should formulate programmes to ensure that migration occurs in a way that maximizes benefits to vulnerable households, sending areas and destinations.
Mr. Eric Hini, Yilo Krobo Municipal Coordinating Director, said though there were limited resources to fight against climate change, the people’s commitment within their reach can contribute to mitigating the change.
The commitment he said included the avoidance of indiscriminate disposal of waste and indiscriminate felling of trees.
Chief Superintendent Gifty Agorkley, Immigration Officer, Yilo Krobo Municipal Command, advised the youth not to look down on farming but liaise with the Agriculture Department for good farming practices so that they harvested more yield.
She said, “Getting more of crop yield will boost their economic status and they will not be tricked to migrate through unapproved routes.”
“It will then avoid challenges of migration as well as not falling in the hands of human traffickers and scammers,” she added.
