As climate change becomes a major worry in Ghana, the Ghana Agricultural Sector Investment Programme (GASIP) plans to train 50 farmers, 70 agricultural officers, and 15 journalists from 61 districts around the country in climate change resilience measures.

The trainers will also serve as climate change champions and focal contacts.

Between May 31 and June 9, a workshop will be held at Nkawie in the Ashanti region and Damongo in the Savannah region to identify and enhance the capacities of champions among agribusinesses, Farmer Based Organizations, and other partners to engage and educate stakeholders, particularly farmers, about climate change and environmental sustainability in their local communities, schools, and groups.

The theme for the workshop is, "Building Champions in Agribusiness Value Chains for Climate Change Resilience."

The selected participants will also be trained on the seasonal weather and crop production (maize) forecast for 2022/2023.

Journalists in particular will be educated on the common knowledge of climate change as well as the climate-smart agriculture solutions.

Writing on behalf of the National Programmes Coordinator, Mr. Klutse Kudomor, the National Climate Change Adaptation Manager, Dr. Edmund Kyei Akoto-Danso said, "participants will be guided through topics such as climate change adaptation and mitigation, and climate information among others."

"Climate change manifests itself in a variety of ways, including rising temperatures, decreasing rainfall events, increased variability, and a higher frequency of weather extremes and disasters, among others. It raises a slew of concerns about the livelihoods of farmers who rely on farming," he wrote.

Climate change is a key component of GASIP, which aims to integrate its adaptation into value chain interventions to promote sustainable production systems and increase smallholder farmers' resilience to negative consequences.

Resource personnel for the workshop include, experts from the Environment and Climate Change Unit of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Centre for No-Till Agriculture (CNTA) and the Ghana Meteorological Agency (GMet).