Building vegetable farmers resilience to climate change

The project seeks to help vegetable farmers adapt to climate change and enhance vegetable production through research on heat, drought and disease tolerant vegetable varieties, soil health, irrigation and water management in vegetable production systems in Ghana. Presently, vegetable production in Ghana is stagnating or declining despite increases in cultivated area due to poor soil quality, droughts, heat, pests and diseases stress as a result of climate change. The project will investigate the use of local organic resources such as oil palm empty fruit bunch applied to soil as an organic mulch, composted pyrolyzed into biochar as a smart way of recycling organics, improving soil fertility, increasing carbon sequestration. Additionally, the project will screen and select vegetable varieties for adaptation to increasing temperature, drought, and pest and diseases incidence. Furthermore, we will analyze and identify inclusive and sustainable business models around local communities fitted with drip and gun irrigation systems allowing additional one to two more growing seasons per year to produce high-value horticultural crops. In addition to increasing the vegetable production and sale and the associated direct value chain, the irrigation development will create jobs in the supporting industry supplying equipment for irrigation and farming in general. The research into these options will be pursued within a framework designed to educate PhD students and a postdoc.

The aim of work package 4, which is co-lead by Roskilde Univesity and University of Ghana, is to analyse and develop inclusive sustainable business models that facilitate technological and economic upgrading of vegetable farmers by overcoming their investment constraints, enhancing skills levels, enabling dry-season farming, and engaging other key actors in the vegetable value network. The key technologies considered are small-scale irrigation and soil amendments using organic residues. A PhD student enrolled at the University of Ghana Agribusiness programme will be part of work package 4, as will Masters students from University of Ghana and University of Cape Coast.

The project has the following specific objectives:

Evaluate the effect of palm oil residues used raw, pyrolyzed (biochar) or composted on different types of soil and measure greenhouse gas emissions from it.

Use field trials to determine the yield potential of climate-tolerant vegetable varieties with and without irrigation as well as manure production from palm oil residues.

Evaluate new solar-powered irrigation systems in combination with rainwater collection as drought protection.

Examine existing and new varieties of vegetables (e.g. okra and eggplant) for tolerance to high temperatures, drought, pests, and diseases.

Analyse the socio-economic assumptions and effects of irrigation, use of palm oil residues and selected climate-stable vegetable varieties on farmers' income.

Develop new sustainable business models so that farmers can invest in technology as well as improve and develop their skills so that they can more easily farm in the dry part of the year.

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Work package 4 is co-lead by Roskilde University and University of Ghana and aims to analyse and develop inclusive sustainable business models that facilitate technological and economic upgrading of vegetable farmers by overcoming their investment constraints, enhancing skills levels, enabling dry-season farming, and engaging other key actors in the vegetable value network. The key technologies considered are small-scale irrigation and soil amendments using organic residues. A PhD student enrolled at the University of Ghana Agribusiness programme will be part of work package 4, as will Masters students from University of Ghana and University of Cape Coast.