Environmental and food crop research scientists have been called to embrace collaborative research and forge stronger partnerships to come out with practical and evidence-based outcomes that will help promote environmental sustainability.
Madam Ophelia Mensah Hayford, Minister for Environment, Science, Technology, and Innovation (MESTI), who made the call, said environmental sustainability was a priority of the government and that initiatives that promoted climate-smart agriculture were essential for achieving environmental objectives.
Madam Hayford made the call at the launch of the ‘Agro-ecology and circular economy for ecosystems services (ACE4ES) project at the Crops Research Institute of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR-CRI) at Fumesua, in the Ejisu Municipality.
The two-year project, which is being financed by the Climate and Clean Air Coalition of the United Nations Environmental Programme, seeks to adopt agro-ecology and circular economy to reduce emissions in rice and maize production.
It is currently being implemented in Ghana, Nigeria, Benin, and Tanzania and has the aim of assessing the effectiveness of agro-ecology and circular economy technologies in reducing short-lived climate pollutants emissions from agricultural activities.
It is expected that a new land management in agriculture will be developed to adopt agro-ecology principles such as no tillage, minimal tillage, cover cropping and rotational cropping that can reduce the burning often observed in conventional agriculture and ensure improved yields of rice and maize.
The initiative will engage policymakers, researchers, and stakeholders to promote the adoption of agro-ecology and circular economy practices and facilitate policy formulation for sustainable agriculture.
The Minister pointed out that, the ACE4ES project with its focus on agro-ecology and circular economy practices aligned perfectly with the Ministry’s vision for greener and more resilient agricultural practices in the future.
She called on stakeholders to take advantage of the various policy initiatives including the MESTI Visibility Webinar Series, Campaign and Initiatives on Plastics and E-waste, climate resilience issues among others, to reach out and create more opportunities within the environment.
Dr Kwaku Onwona-Hwesofour Asante, the Project Lead, said the initiative was informed by the challenges in the current food system, adding that, there were a lot of inputs that made agriculture unproductive.
He observed that many pesticides and fertilizers were used in farming and these inputs affected pollinators, soil diversity, and water bodies.
“Agriculture has been environmentally degradative, and we are hoping that we can adopt a new approach which is agro-ecology and include circular economy principles in agriculture to ensure that we not only produce food sustainably but also mitigate the effects of climate change.”
According to researchers, food systems were a major cause of climate change, contributing to about 21-37 percent of the total greenhouse gas emissions through agriculture, land use, storage, transport, packaging, processing, retail, and consumption.
Dr Asante said it was expected that by the end of the two-year period, researchers could scale up the technologies to other countries on the continent and beyond to enable farmers adopt sustainable agricultural practices that would boost food production and mitigate the effects of climate change.
Professor Paul Pinnock Bosu, Director-General of CSIR, described the project as a “game changer” as far as sustainable land management and economic development were concerned.
He said since the model could be applied on any agro ecosystem, it was important partners and stakeholders ensured that project objectives were delivered on time to increase donor funding for future extensions.
