Organic Agriculture, Food Safety and Supply in Northern Ghana - CAOF’s Strategy

Summary

Northern Ghana covers the three regions in the north of Ghana and parts of Northern Brong Ahafo Region and Northern Volta. It covers a large part of the Savannah vegetation of Ghana and suffers from declining soil fertility, food insecurity, climate variability and change. Organic agriculture has the potential to reverse these ills even though the advocates of conventional agriculture may disagree with this assertion. The Coalition for the Advancement of Organic Farming (CAOF) has seen organic farming as the way to tackling these challenges in a sustainable manner. CAOF has conducted various research, developed and implemented projects and has seen that this strategy is actually addressing these challenges. This paper presents CAOF’s strategy in trying to address organic agriculture, food safety and supply concerns in Northern Ghana and highlights some of the successes so far. The paper also identifies some of the challenges so far in its work in the organic agriculture sector in Northern Ghana and concludes with the way forward for the coalition.