Project Goal:
To mitigate the effects of climate change in the Adaklu-Traditional Area through the promotion of watershed management; sustainable land management; effective soil fertility management, afforestation and wildfire control so as to reduce the emission of carbon dioxide whilst improving the livelihood of communities.

Project objectives:
• To develop local community capacity in wildfire management, green farming systems and use of efficient renewable energy technologies in six communities.
• Restore the degraded Tordzie river watershed
• To encourage the adoption and practice of appropriate agro-forestry and sustainable farming systems that ensure retention and improvement of soil fertility, increased crop yield and protect soil erosion.
• To support the livelihood of direct beneficiaries in six communities through beekeeping, small ruminant rearing and investment in processing of sustainable land management products.

Expected Outputs/Results

The successful implementation of the project shall produce six specific outputs:

1. Capacities of 150 farmers developed and supported in sustainable watershed and wildfire management practices.

2. 100 farmers supported in widespread adoption of Integrated Soil Fertility Management (ISFM) and soil fodder banking within the Tordzie River Basin

3. 40 hectares of degraded community lands within the Tordzie water basin restored through established community based woodlots, enrichment planting of shrine grooves, protection of water catchments areas and planting of legume crops to ensure availability of the crop for animals in the dry season.

4. 100 farmers supported to acquire appropriate scientific skills in beekeeping small ruminant rearing and marketing of farm products.

DESCRIPTION OF PROJECT ACTIVITIES

For the realization of targeted outputs sets of activities below are planned

Output One:
Capacities of 150 farmers developed in sustainable watershed and wildfire management practices.

Planned Activities under Output One (1):

1.1 Identify traditional climate-resilient policies and measures in the traditional area and develop appropriate interventions for adoption.
1.2 Discuss and agree with project beneficiaries to enable them make input and agree on time schedule for training programs in all 6 beneficiary communities
1.3 Assess and procure basic training materials and conduct workshops in all 6 communities groups to facilitate training process and enhance transfer of technology to sustain capacities of beneficiaries in wildfire management and agro-forestry practices.
1.4 Conduct training in sustainable watershed/land management practices and agro-forestry methodologies in all the 6 participating communities to equip beneficiaries with appropriate skills to undertake tree planting towards effective land management practices.
1.5 Undertake community fora on wildfire management issues to address bush fire prevention and control issues.
1.6 Train four ADICODE field staff and 10 community local resource persons (LRP) on wildfire and sustainable agronomic practices in the first year.
1.7 Promote exchange visits for LRPs to educative sites best practices in wildfire management across the Volta Region of Ghana.

Output Two (2):
150 farmers trained in widespread adoption of Integrated Soil Fertility Management (ISFM) through soil health initiative within the Tordzie River Basin:

The ISFM strategy involves assessing local soil and water resources and considering how organic matter, fertilizers, farmer cropping systems, and farmer knowledge can work in concert to create highly productive and environmentally sustainable approaches to soil revitalization. Education cells will be established in the 12 participation communities whose membership amounts to 100 people.

Planned Activities

The project will therefore undertake the following activities:
2.1 Train farmers in the preparation of organic compost from crop residues, domestic waste and pesticides from neem preparation.
2.2 Encourage farmers to plant stylozanties and other leguminous crops to provide nutritious dry season folder within two years
2.3 Encourage groups to go into production of compost and pesticides for use at the village levels to improve farmers’ access to appropriate and affordable manure.
2.4 Train farmers on application of manure, crop rotation with legumes that can increase the availability of soil nitrogen and introduction of improved seeds for production of food crops.
Output 3
40 hectares of degraded community lands within the Tordzie water basin restored through established community based woodlots, enrichment planting of shrine grooves, protection of water catchments areas and planting of legume crops to ensure availability of the crop for animals in the dry season.

Having engaged the interest of the chiefs and opinion leaders, it is planned that, there should be a central nursery in each of the communities from where all participants will learn the method of raising seedlings. Seedlings raised here will be distributed for the communal projects owned by the community as well as individual projects undertaken as private venture.

In order to ensure that the project maintains its impact, there will be a collaboration between the projects management team and the basic schools so that education materials are made available to the pupils to be used by the teachers. Teachers will be required to use their gardening period to teach pupils about nursery raising and environmental preservation. Education, seedling production and distribution are integrally coordinated and monitored throughout the project alongside all others components.
Planned Activities under output three (3)

3.1 Organize training workshop to equip 150 participants of the 12 communities with appropriate skills in Agro-Forestry systems and soil management practices to enable beneficiaries restore 40 hectares of the degraded lands.
3.2 Establish and manage community nurseries capable of producing 100,000 seedlings a year.
3.3 Organize the communities into activity groups to restore 40 hectares of degraded riverine forest and lands by adopting sustainable land management practices and planting agroforestry trees and mango and cashew under ally cropping
3.4 Organize field train for beneficiary farmers on wildfire management for protection of 100ha established plantations to enhance sustainable land management and biodiversity conservation practices.
3.5 Assist communities to construct fire breaks around plantations and orchards/ alley crop and ensure adequate protection and proper management of plantations

Output 4:
30 women farmers acquired appropriate scientific skills in food processing.

Activities Planned

4.1 Identify 30 women interested farmers and develop their capacities in scientific processing of agricultural produce and small ruminant rearing
4.2 Organize field training workshop on the cultivation of vegetables such as: cabbage, carrots, lettuce, varieties of cowpeas garden eggs, ginger onions , soya beans etc for the selected women
4.3 Organize series of training sessions in Kpetoe for selected women in the use of local vegetables for the preparation of nutritious meals and drinks. Eg. Preparation of soya khebab and ginger ale among others.
4.4 Train the Youth in sustainable agriculture and women in agro-processing in record keeping, book keeping and marketing, to sustain their initiatives. Training centre is at Kpetoe
4.5 Provide start up capital for trained farmers to set up business enterprise in small ruminant rearing.