PlantwisePlus Blog

Article by Sebastian Avery.

Hope leaves Ghanaian farmers as another expected late rainfall leads to the possibility of drought. We can only pray that history does not repeat itself. As some of you may know 2007 was disastrous for Ghanaian farmers especially those living in the White Volta Basin.

LakeVolta, Ghana © Sandister Tei (CC-BY-SA)

This is because a very similar drought happened that year, causing farmers to cultivate their crops later in the year, and that is when the torrential rains appeared. This was not the worst of it. Because of the massive rainfall, it was announced that the Bagra Dam was full to the brim and had to be spilled. This made the flooding around the White Volta incredibly serious; farmers lucky enough to survive lost their belongings, livestock and crops. The weather is currently very unpredictable leaving all of us hoping that this will be a safe year for the farmers of Ghana.

Agriculture in Nepal has been affected by flooding © Philippe Leroyer (CC BY-NC-ND)

Due to global warming and rising sea levels, flooding is also becoming more and more common in a lot of countries, a good example of one of these is Nepal. Flooding has always been an annual event in Nepal. However, in the last 40 years there have been 12 abnormally large floods, causing destruction to the land and the people. Reparation and recovery from the huge floods costs the average household in Nepal £5,200 and when the average annual income is only £1,590 you can understand how this will become very financially hard for the farmers. It is also very worrying for the country because around three quarters of the population in Nepal depends on agriculture as an income. We can see that it is not just certain areas but all across Nepal that has been affected by the serious flooding, with 29,000 families affected, 8,000 homes destroyed and 283 deaths from 1983 to 2010.

 However, Nepal has tried to make use of the huge rainfall and floods that it is victim of, by using hydroelectricity. 90% of the country’s electricity is from hydroelectric plants. As long as the floods can be predicted and used advantageously Nepal might eventually become grateful of their annual invaders.

References

Ghana: Possible Drought Looming

Flooding in Nepal