Effects of climate change threaten 2020 middle income target

The country’s target of becoming a full-fledged middle income country by 2020, could seriously be threatened by effects of climate change, as it is already affecting economic output, livelihoods and long-term development prospects, Prof. Christopher Gordon, Director, Institute for Environment & Sanitation Studies at the University of Ghana, has said.

 

There is evidence of the impact of climate change on the national economy, with clear signs that the coastal zone, agriculture and water resources are all negatively affected, with consequent impacts on poverty, health and women’s livelihoods, he said.

Speaking at a symposium on the topic: ‘ICT, Climate Change and Agricultural Production’ at the 68 Annual New Year School and Conference in Accra, Prof. Gordon said the country’s own contribution to global climate change mitigation has been negligible, adding the country’s vulnerability lies in its reliance on sectors that are sensitive to climate change, such as agriculture, forestry and energy production.

“The question we have before us is: how can we turn the negatives of climate change into positives so that we can sustainably increase agricultural production using ICT, with for example, better acquisition of weather data, early warning systems for farmers and better marketing of produce that impacts the lives of the small holder farmers who make up the bulk of the agriculture sector in the country?” he said.

Prof. Gorden hinted that the country’s emissions of Green House Gases (GHG) have increased since 2004.

In the 2014, which is the official latest reporting year to UNFCCC, Ghana’s total GHG emissions, excluding the Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use Sectors, were estimated to be 16.51 MtCO₂e.  Carbon dioxide has increased by 82%, Nitrous oxide by 22% and Methanen by 16%.

He added that mean annual temperature has risen by 1.0 °C since 1960.  The number of 'hot' days per year has increased by 13.2 %, while the number of 'hot' nights per year has increased by 20 %. ‘Cold' days and nights per year have decreased by 3.3 and 5.1 % respectively.

In the period 2005 – 2010, the period between start and end of rains varied by as much as 30 % from year to year.

Mrs. Francisca Martey of the Ghana Meteorological Authority said that the historical data from the year 1961 to 2013 clearly shows a progressive rise in temperature and decrease in mean annual rainfall in all the six agro-ecological zones in the country.

She indicated that climate change is manifested in the country through rising temperatures, declining rainfall totals and increased variability.

The Meteorological agency, she hinted, has started the Agro meteorological bulletin to help farmers to monitor the rainfall activities around them so as to plan properly.

Customs to intensify data gathering

The Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has joined its counterparts around the world to mark the 2017 International Customs Day, with a call to improve data gathering at the country’s borders.

The decision, which forms part of the broader efforts of the GRA at blocking revenue leakages, is also targeted at improving tax collection for development.

The celebrations, which was under the theme: ‘Data Analysis for Effective Border Management’ and held in Accra, brought together various stakeholders from government agencies, and institutions as well as Customs officials from other regions.

The Commissioner General of the Ghana Revenue Authority, Mr. George Blankson explained that reliable data will substantially enhance revenue generation.

“We plan to make presentations to explain how data management systems have facilitated our revenue collection process in the classification and evaluation goods and also employment of risk management tools to enhance compliance as well as detection of customs fraud,” he said.

He said that the authority is poised to improve the country revenue collection through the process of quickly retrieving data for national assignment.

“Data analysis has the goal of discovering useful information, suggesting conclusion and supporting decision making, for this reason the authority strives to acquire information management systems that will make retrieving and analyzing of data very easy.

The recent development of the post clearance audit unit in the customs division has for instance resulted in the utilization of large pool of data for the conduct of follow up audit and controls that have significantly improved tax compliance and revenue mobilization,” he added.

Dr. Edward Larbi-Siaw, Special Advisor, Tax Policy at the Ministry of Finance explained that with globalisation, the trade and transport community continues to seek simplification of data requirements for international trade transactions on account of legal and regulatory regimes at the borders. 

He said pursuant to those developments, there was consensus among member countries of the World Customs Organisation (WCO) that global harmonisation and simplification of systems and procedures could be achieved through learning from other countries.

“It is becoming increasingly necessary for customs administrations worldwide to share and exchange data and information,” Dr. Larbi-Siaw added.  

Secretary General of the WCO, Mr. Kunio Mikuriya, in a statement said customs administrations had shown a keen interest in leveraging the potential of information technology, implementing and using digital technologies to achieve their objectives and responding to the expectations of traders, transport and logistic operators, as well as governments.

“While developments in Information Communication Technology and its wider use have made the collection of data and access to open data easier, the real challenge is about making sense of a vast amount of information through proper processing and analysis. 

“This will help customs officers to drive priority-setting, decision-making, performance measurement, integrity and compliance strategy, budget planning and forecasting, and operations,” he said.

‘One Village, One Dam’ is feasible

A doctor in Geography and Resource Development at the University of Ghana, Legon has said, government’s proposed ‘One Village, One Dam’ project is feasible within two years as most of the villages in the three northern regions already have dry banks suitable for irrigational dams.
 

Speaking in an interview with B&FT at the ongoing 68^th Annual New Year School, Dr. Alex Barimah Owusu confirmed: “The One Village One Dam’ project promised by the President is really doable. I see it as projects that can easily be achieved within the two years.

“We have data about mapping of locations and their water content within the three northern regions.  We only need to revisit the data and update it. The data I am talking about were collected in 2011 and it was updated in 2013 -2014.”

He explained that a feasibility studies that mapped all the underground water within the Northern region currently exist and that the data is available with the Water Resource Commission showing where there is suitable water for construction of dams.

He added that government need to visit all the existing dams based on the available data and take inventory of them and possibly collaborate with the numerous developmental non-governmental organisations operating in the northern region to help execute the project on time to help increase food production and revenue generation for the rural farmers within the northern region.

Dr. Owusu, speaking under the topic; “Promoting National Development Through Agricultural Modernization: E-Agriculture (ICT in Agriculture) mentioned high cost of technology in the agricultural sector, adding that  basic global information system software could cost US$2080 with a basic laptop to run software also costing US$700.00.

 He urged government to consider application of ICT to help improve information and communication processes for the benefit of the agricultural and rural development.

speaking on the topic: “E-solutions and Agriculture Productivity,” Mr. Daniel Asare-Kyei, the Managing Director of Esoko Ghana Ltd, said the company been providing relevant data on market prices and weather information to farmers via SMS to help them make better decisions about their farming activities, leading to better livelihoods.

This he said has helped in solving the numerous challenges facing farmers in the country’s crop value chain adding that having access to basic information could help farmers increase their revenues.

Mr. Asare-Kyei said a study conducted by New York University on Esoko's Market Prices in Ghana, revealed an average of 10 per cent increase in revenues among participants receiving Esoko’s market prices.

He advocated the promotion of the use of mobile telephony to reach out to smallholder farmers.

He said Esoko, since its establishment, had been a fervent supporter of open data, adding that their social enterprise began by collecting data and sharing this information with farmers over SMS.

“Studies conducted on Esoko show that access to this data has helped smallholder farmers to increase their income levels,” he said.

He said the banks usually found it very difficult to assist farmers because they lacked the requisite knowledge on the farmer.

“We are taking advantage of mobile money service technology to reach out to smallholder farmers in order to provide assistance for them. With mobile money, Esoko had been able to build the history of farmers and is, therefore, in a position to assist them,” he remarked.