The Glaring Impact of Climate Change on Indigenous Food Systems

In the Upper East region of Ghana, the rains used to set in the first or second week of April, however, over the years the beginning of the rainy season has shifted to late May or even early June. This year, we have been experiencing serious droughts from April to July, and still, no consistent rains.

In April this year, it rained heavily for two days during the dry season. This rainfall confused many farmers because they knew the rainy season pattern has shifted, and that climate change has been impacting rainfall patterns. In May, it started to rain, but it was not consistent as usual, and there were long periods of drought between rainfalls. Some farmers went ahead to plant their crops, and others decided to wait until the rains were more consistent. Around the Bolgatanga area, there were ten days, almost two weeks, between the last rainfall in May, and the first rainfall in June.

Millet crops planted in late June.

The consequences of climate change on indigenous foods, native seeds, traditional food processing, local food systems knowledge, and ancestral foodways are currently being experienced by local communities and indigenous people, however, the gravity of the long-term impact is still widely unknown. Regardless, we can use the past foodways and knowledge systems to anticipate the implications of climate change on farming, plants, animals, and various species for food, medicine, nutrition, community livelihood, household food security, and ecological processes that contribute to the sustainability of life.

Usually, in late May, farmers in the various regions in the northern part of Ghana have already planted early millet to be harvested in three months, and alongside the late millet, like sorghum. Leguminous crops like groundnuts, bambara beans, soy beans, cow pea etc. as well as leafy and fruity vegetables like pumpkin, tomatoes, eggplant, okra, etc. On the fields, you will see leafy vegetables like berese, ayoyo, and aleefo where the groundnuts have been planted, or sometimes along the borders of the fields where the grains are planted. However, this year, many farmers could not plant their crops as per usual in line with the right planting season, and hence they waited until June when they could trust the consistency of the rainfalls to plant. However, long periods of severe drought have occurred this year between the months of May to July. This severe drought had a negative impact on already planted crops.

Indigenous seeds are considered drought-resistant, climate resistant, insect-infestation-resistant, and tolerant to little or no rain. However, when it does not rain on time for the soil to hold enough moisture, these crops can not be planted at their appropriate timing, and this impacts the cycle of the seeds to produce food for harvest. The changes in rainfall patterns and the droughts have implications for the timing of flowering of plants, the presence and movement of pollinators, and the migration and movement of birds, insects, and fungi. This has ripple effects on the food webs as the ecosystem becomes less aligned and less synchronized.

When early millet and their companion crops are supposed to be planted in May and early June, so that in the following months of late June and early July, the late millet, bambara beans, and accompanying crops can be planted, and it does not occur as such, the late planting of these crops places tremendous stress on farmers, their family, their livelihoods, and their communities. In this case, what happens is, farmers then decide to grow maize, soy, rice, and other crops to ensure that they have food at the end of the rainy season. To some extent, maize has a husk to protect it from competition with birds and other animals who are likely to eat or destroy the harvest.

Pearl Millet

Gradually, the millet and sorghum varieties are ignored and neglected in the fields. Not planting indigenous seeds leads to the loss of seed varieties from one community to the other, it leads to the loss of the viability of indigenous seeds, as well as, the lack of accessibility of indigenous seeds. Hence, the danger becomes a challenge to grow indigenous seeds in order to make them more adaptable to the impact of climate change.

A farmer friend and beekeeper, Abraham Adakabla, from the Namiyela community, mentioned to me that each seed has a life span, and when its life span ends, the seeds will not be viable to germinate. And so when the rains do not come, farmers are forced to postpone the planting of certain indigenous seeds, because they know that planting seeds late will not provide the yield the crop normally does when planted on time. Moreover, the following season, some of the seeds saved from the previous season may not be viable to plant. Furthermore, Abraham Adakabla stated that when the indigenous seeds are planted late, they yield less food during the harvest, and this can be devastating for a farmer.

The impact of not growing our indigenous seeds has a deep nutritional impact on our health. Crops such as millet, sorghum, bambara beans, shea, baobab, groundnuts, and other crops are key to our diet here in the Upper East region of Ghana. For instance, in various communities in the northern regions of Ghana, we make a drink called zumcum, with ground millet, shea butter, pepper, water, and tamarind (optional). We also make a meal called Tuo Zaafi, a millet swallow that goes with soup made with local vegetables like bito, berese, ayoyo, aleefo, okra, and baobab leaves. In addition, we also use millet to make fermented foods like masa, which is deep-fried with shea butter made in a clay frying pan. And our most popular breakfast food, kooko, a fermented millet porridge made with ginger, and spices.

Millet Tuo Zaafi with Ayoyo Soup, and Tomato Stew

When farmers grow less millet and sorghum, season after season, and year after year, this means other crops like maize, soy, wheat, and white rice become substitutes for the aforementioned meals. Hence, the techniques in preparing traditional foods are lost, the knowledge around how to ferment and prepare these traditional foods is also not passed on, and the nutritional quality of the foods consumed by local communities is reduced. I can tell you that Tuo Zaafi made with millet taste completely different from one made with maize. The taste, texture, aroma, and sourness from the fermentation made with millet stand out.  

Our indigenous foods are vulnerable to food security and food sovereignty. Our farmers, local communities, and local systems are at a greater risk of the impact of climate change disrupting our food and agricultural systems, local diets, and indigenous food systems. The effect of climate change does not only undermine our indigenous food security, but also our traditional systems and knowledge used to manage extreme events, pandemics, and natural disasters.

We are not asking for genetically modified seeds to deal with climate change, we are not asking for chemicals to be able to grow food in the difficulties of climate change, we are not asking for more scientific research from laboratories to figure out how to address the climate change issue, we are not asking for more signatures on another climate change referendum or policy. Based on farmers’ practical existential experience of farming with genetically modified seeds that are grown with agrochemicals, it is proven that the genetically modified seeds are not considered to be highly resistant to drought and insect infestation and the yield has not been as it has been advertised, promoted, and promised.

At the end of the rainy season, going into the dry season, there are traditional ways millet can be used to maintain the sustenance of farmers who do not have enough food in their households. There is a meal called bengari, that I ate at my aunty's house around hospital quarters in Bolga. It is almost made like toubani (steamed beans), but it's made either with bean leaves and millet, or bean leaves and cowpea. When someone has millet in abundance, and not enough cowpea, they can use millet and the bean leaves to make bengari. Also, when groundnuts are hard to come by during the harmattan or dry season, millet can be used to replace groundnuts and make soup with vegetables to be eaten with Tuo Zaafi.

Our forefathers growing indigenous crops knew that soil health is life, which needs to be protected and strengthened, thus they planted cover crops to protect the soil from extreme sun and runoff from heavy rainfalls. Our foremothers held the knowledge of intercropping cover crops with other cereals to avoid chemical input in crops, in order to return moisture content to the soil and to improve higher yields.

West African Seed Fair in Benin

The solution to climate change is rooted in the respectful and reciprocal relationships that local and indigenous communities have with the land, the water, and the animals, as well as with each other and the ecosystem at large. The solution to climate change is rooted in the connections, the relationships, and the bonds that form and sustain traditional food and ecological knowledge. We must allow local and indigenous communities to provide the roadmap, knowledge, and wisdom based on years of interaction with the natural world and their communities on the sustainability of indigenous foods in the face of climate change. The answer to solving climate change lies in how local and indigenous communities have protected and preserved indigenous foods, ancestral foodways, and food webs.

This article was written with guidance and editing support from Abraham Adakabla, a farmer, and a beekeeper from the Namiyela community in the Upper East region.