Paying Farmers to Ecologically Manage Land
The Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions have the highest incidence of poverty, food insecurity and the least climate resilient. As smallholder farmers, decreasing annual rainfall, erratic rainfall patterns due to climate change are affecting rural livelihoods adversely. For instance, the Upper East Region, which falls within the Sudan Savanna zone, is known for a uni-modal rainfall regime lasting five to six months and a long dry period of six to seven months. Average annual rainfall of 885mm can be very patchily distributed and farmers sow seeds two or three times before the rains set in reliably somewhere in July or August. Predominantly, farmers’ household food security becomes a major problem despite the fact that they tediously and laboriously till the land for cropping each year.
Olaf