Mission
Food and Sustainability
Food is foundational to life, a fundamental right and requirement for our survival and well-being. It is also central to our social lives and a reservoir of age-long traditions and cultural expressions. Food is everything! But there is more to this.
The food system, which describes how we collectively produce, process, transport, consume, and manage waste from food, is responsible for about one-third of all greenhouse gas emissions. It is also the most significant driver of biodiversity loss (70%) on land, with agriculture being the leading identified threat to 86% of global species facing extinction. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) states that crop expansion (49.60%) and livestock grazing (38.46%) were the leading causes of global deforestation over ten years (2000-2018). This trend was true for the African region where more than 75% of forest was converted to cropland over the same period. The Global Land Outlook Second Edition indicated that about 40% of our planet's land is degraded due to multiple drivers, such as climate change, deforestation, overcultivation, overgrazing, and rapid urban population growth.
The challenge facing smallholder food producers
Agriculture in Ghana, dominated by smallholder farmers, is an essential engine of economic growth and job creation. It is estimated that about 70% of agricultural lands in the country are about 2-3 hectares in size, most of them producing the majority of the country's food. Though critical actors in the national agri-food economy, smallholder farmers in rural Ghana face challenges with access to land, agricultural inputs, capital, and a market for their produce. They are also the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.
In the attempt to increase yields to make farming profitable and improve their livelihoods, farmers engage in unsustainable practices that degrade land and deplete soil fertility. Agricultural activities such as slash-and-burn land preparation, excessive soil tillage, monoculture, and intensification (use of inorganic fertilisers, pesticides, and herbicides) pose a significant risk to biodiversity and place a burden on natural resources. The vicious cycle of land degradation, reduced soil fertility, loss of pollinators, and exposure to climate change ultimately drive the decline of crop yields and agricultural resilience.
What is our solution?
We support farmers in producing food sustainably and protecting the environment simultaneously. Improving farm productivity and profitability for smallholder farmers should not risk the natural environment and endanger wildlife. By providing advice on nature-friendly farming and supporting farmers with incentives to adopt sustainable farming and land management practices, we can increase food productivity, safeguard biodiversity and enhance agricultural resilience.