The West African Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL) at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) is leading efforts to mainstream Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) and Climate Information Services (CIS) into curricula of universities.
In line with this, it has organized a three-day training workshop which focused on two thematic modules – Disaster Risk Management in Crop Production, Livestock and Aquaculture and Pest and Disease Management in Crop, Fish and Livestock Production.
The programme, which serves as a platform to bridge the gap between research and teaching aims to incorporate information from the modules into existing courses or curricula to foster a new wave of professionals capable of driving sustainable agricultural transformation in Ghana and countries in Africa.
This way, universities could become a launch-pad for climate-smart solutions.
The event was put together by WASCAL in partnership with the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) with support from the Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa (AICCRA) initiative.
It brought together lecturers and deans from Ghana and other West African universities, especially WASCAL alumni and KNUST faculty, tasked with creating roadmaps for integrating climate smart agriculture into higher education across the region.
Professor Mrs. Rita Akosua Dickson, Vice-Chancellor, KNUST at the opening of the event in Kumasi, underscored the urgency of the initiative, describing climate change as a “borderless crisis” that required coordinated solutions.
She noted that Africa’s heightened vulnerability was due to its dependence on natural resources and limited adaptive capacity.
Prof Dickson pledged that the KNUST would monitor the outcomes and explored ways of incorporating the new modules into existing curricula as short courses.
Prof. Wilson Agyei Agyare, Director of the WASCAL Climate Change and Land Use programme at KNUST, said the aim was to build a complete climate smart toolkit for higher education.
“This training is not just a knowledge sharing exercise, it is a call to action.
We are building a complete climate smart toolkit for higher education, from soil carbon sequestration to disaster risk and pest control,” he outlined.
Dr Alcade Segnon, AICCRA’s Science Officer for West Africa, said the training would empower institutions to adapt academic offerings to reflect climate realities.
Prof Daouda Kone, Director of Capacity Building at WASCAL, explained that the training was part of a broader programme comprising four thematic modules and disclosed that all complementary materials would be made available on RUFORUM’s online platform to support long term access and impact.
SOURCE: ACCESS AGRIC
