Reviving the Soil, Reclaiming the Future: ActionAid Ghana Champions Conservation Agriculture in Takpo under the GIZ-Funded CAPS Project
ActionAid Ghana, through the GIZ-funded Strengthening Community Resilience through Community Action Plans Project, continues to lead impactful, community-based interventions aimed at promoting climate-resilient agriculture in Ghana’s Upper West Region. One of the latest strides under the project’s third output—enhancing sustainable land use for improved soil health—has taken root in Takpo with a field demonstration on conservation agriculture using cover cropping.
The field demonstration, held in collaboration with district stakeholders and local farmers, aimed to showcase the benefits of cover cropping—a proven conservation agriculture technique that improves soil fertility, prevents erosion, retains moisture, and suppresses weeds. Participants observed firsthand how the integration of leguminous crops such as soybean, groundnut, and cowpea can naturally fix nitrogen in the soil, restoring its vitality without reliance on chemical inputs.
This initiative is timely for Takpo and surrounding communities in the Nadowli District, where erratic rainfall patterns, land degradation, and declining soil productivity continue to threaten food security and livelihoods. By promoting conservation agriculture practices, ActionAid Ghana is helping farmers to adapt to climate change while building long-term resilience in food systems.
“The health of our soil is the foundation of our future food security. Through the CAPS project, we are investing in solutions that not only sustain the land but also empower our farmers—especially women and youth—with the knowledge and tools to farm sustainably.” ~ Abiba Nibaradun, the Regional Programme Manager for ActionAid Ghana
Nine communities are benefiting from conservation agriculture, which cover 900 farmers with 80% been women. The proceeds of the demonstration farms are intended to plough back into their VSLA platform where each farmer benefits from by taking loans with low interest in invest in their businesses and farm inputs. Hence, sustaining their livelihoods as well as diversifying income opportunities to withstand the shocks of climate change and be resilient.
The cover cropping demonstration marks a crucial step in ActionAid’s broader goal of supporting climate-smart agriculture across Ghana’s most vulnerable agro-ecological zones. Beyond the demonstration, farmers will continue to receive support in the form of training, seeds, and peer-to-peer learning platforms.
As ActionAid Ghana and GIZ continue to roll out CAPs across the region, the success seen in Takpo signals a promising shift toward environmentally responsible and community-driven farming practices—where the soil is not just a medium for planting, but a living ally in the fight against climate change.
About REACH Project
The Resilience Against Climate Change (REACH) project drives the transformation towards climate resilient agricultural production and improved livelihoods in North-West Ghana. The project is a pillar of the European Union Ghana Agriculture Programme (EU GAP) and builds capacities for the widespread adoption of Conservation Agriculture (CA) as well as climate resilience through planning systems from the community to the district level. REACH is implemented by GIZ under the Market Oriented Value Chains for Jobs and Growth in the ECOWAS Region (MOVE) and co-funded by the European Union (EU) and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).