The National Initiatives for Sustainable and
Climate-smart Oil Palm Smallholders (NISCOPS) has been launched by Solidaridad in
Accra, Ghana.
NISCOPS is a five year strategic programme aimed to
among others enable governments in key oil palm producing
countries to support and work with farmers towards more sustainable, climate
smart palm oil production as well as contribute to Paris Agreement, Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) objectives
and the Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs).
The
programme is being implemented in Africa (Ghana and Nigeria) and Asia
(Indonesia and Malaysia) with the initial funding support from the Government
of the Netherlands.
The
programme has an inception year (2019) with the implementation phase I from
2020 to 2023 and implementation phase II from 2024 and beyond.
The
Regional Director, Solidaridad West Africa, Isaac Gyamfi during the launch of
the programme in Accra, Ghana and the inauguration of the programme National
Advisory Committee (NAC), said, “We make bold here to say Solidaridad is in
term with the current global and local realities especially on climate change
and agriculture and we are now using our over 50 years’ experience of both foot
and brain on the ground through our works to contribute to shaping practices
and policies at local, districts, national and global levels”.
Solidaridad
has been in Ghana’s Oil palm landscape since 2012 promoting yield
intensification at both the farm and mill levels through introduction of Best
Management Practices (BMP) and improved processing technology
respectively.
The
organization has also supported the revitalization of the Oil Palm Development
Association of Ghana (OPDAG).
Solidaridad
has also played a role in the establishment of the Tree Crops Development
Authority. These have been implemented
under our Sustainable West Africa Oil Palm Program (SWAPP).
Analysis
from SWAPP shows that an average farm yield of at least 12tons/ha/year for
existing farms coupled with oil extraction rate of 18% will make Ghana
self-sufficient in Crude Palm Oil (CPO) production. This can only be realised
when among other interventions such as BMP, great attention is paid to the
impacts of climate change on the sector as well as the contribution of the oil
palm sector to climate change.
In his presentation during the event, Dr. Samson
Samuel Ogallah, Solidaridad Senior Climate Specialist for Africa and the
NISCOPS Technical Coordinator stated that the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
of the programme is built on the three pillars of Climate Smart Agriculture
(CSA) of Productivity, Adaptation and Mitigation.
Dr. Ogallah added that the programme in addition to
its contribution to the NDCs and SDGs of the four countries, aimed to further build capacity of smallholders (organizations)
and local institutions to improve performance as well as support development of
landscape level mechanisms to
operate in ‘vulnerable’ landscapes prone to deforestation.
In
her speech at the event, Katja Lasseur, Deputy Head of Mission, Embassy of the
Kingdom of the Netherlands, Ghana, expressed the commitment of the Government
of the Netherlands to the programme and call on other partners and stakeholders
to come on board in order to achieve the laudable objectives of the programme.
The
Minister for Food and Agriculture, Dr.OwusuAfriyieAkoto in his speech which was
delivered on his behalf stated that Agriculture is the backbone of the Ghanaian
economy. Achieving sustainable food security in a world of growing population
and changing diets is a major challenge under climate change.
Climate
change will have far-reaching consequences for agriculture that will
disproportionately affect poor and marginalized groups who depend on
agriculture for their livelihoods and have a lower capacity to adapt.
Dr. Akoto added “I
am happy to note that the overarching
goal of NISCOPS is to contribute towards Ghana’s Nationally Determined
Contribution of the Paris Climate Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals
through; Building the climate resilience of smallholder oil palm farmers and
oil palm processors; Promoting use of energy efficient cook stoves at the
artisanal processing level and; Implementing community led adaptation and
livelihood diversification programs.
I
wish to assure you of Government support to create the enabling environment for
the successful implementation of the programme in selected vulnerable communities
in order to replicate it in other sectors of the economy to mitigate the impact
of climate change”
A
nine-member National Advisory Committee (NAC) to advise the programme was
inaugurated. The NAC members comprised of Public and Private sector representatives
from the Oil Palm Development Association of Ghana, Oil Palm Research
Institute, Ministries of Food and Agriculture; Trade and Industry; Local
Government and Rural Development; Land and Natural Resources; Environment,
Science, Technology and Innovation (Environmental Protection Agency and
Forestry Commission).
NISCOPS
is implemented by Solidaridad in Ghana and Solidaridad in partnership with IDH
in Indonesia, Malaysia and Nigeria.
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