Mr Fred Mensah, Chairman of Sustainable Poverty Eradication and Development Association (SPEDA), a community-based organization (CBO) has advised fishermen and farmers not to rely solely on one activity to earn a living. He urged them to engage in alternate livelihood ventures to broaden their financial base. Mr Mensah made the call at a workshop organized by the CBO on alternate livelihood opportunities for some farmers at Dompoase in the Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abirem (KEEA) District. The CBO which operates in nine communities in KEEA offers alternate livelihood opportunities in grasscutter and rabbit breeding, snail and mushroom farming, woodlot farming, construction of improved wood stove and micro credit input support. The French Embassy in Ghana is funding the CBO’s programmes. Mr Mensah noted that farmers could no longer rely on rain-fed farming due to the erratic weather pattern being experienced in the country these days while fishermen could not rely on the sea due to the diminishing marine resources. He noted that the reliance of Ghanaians on one way income generating ventures had made poverty deep rooted in the country. Mr Joseph Bismark Abannoh, Executive Director of the Global Habitat for Homeless, a non-governmental organization (NGO) based in Mankessim, took the participants through climatic change and cautioned them against destruction of the nation's vegetation cover. He advised farmers not to go into woodlot farming as only to produce fuel wood but also as means of inducing rain. The communities which are benefiting from SPEDA programmes are Dompoase, Kokwaado, Abreshia, Kwahenkrom and Kyiase. The others are Kissi, Abakano, Mpanyinasa and Enyinase all near Komenda. Source: GNA