The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Ghana wishes to invite commercial rice farmers that use irrigation technology, to participate in its climate-smart rice programme.

The programme envisions to transform Ghana’s irrigated rice sector into a more resilient and sustainable rice production system in the face of climate change-induced threats and damages by 2030. Through the programme’s technology, rice farmers can increase yield, reduce methane emissions, reduce water pumping costs, and improve the efficiency of water use. 

Requirements for Participation

• Fields should be (fairly) leveled

• Fields should have bunds to support the holding of water on the farm

• Fields should have drains to allow control of water quantity on the farm

• Fields should have pumps to be able to manage the water levels on the fields 

For interested farms that meet the above criteria, and wishes to participate in the programme, the following steps are required:

1. Contact UNDP to register by providing the farm details: location, size, etc. (please see contact details below at the bottom of the page)

2. Receive training on Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD) technology/application, monitoring, recording, and reporting

3. Make one-time upfront investment in water measuring tubes (approx. Ghs 200 for 5 water measurement tools).

4. Adopt the AWD on registered/onboarded farm 

5. Monitor and record every watering event 

6. Independent verification for ITMO payments of $20 per ha and season in the 1^st year and $25 per ha and season in subsequent years. Payments will be made in local currency at the prevailing UN exchange rate.

Background

The climate-smart rice programme falls within a bilateral agreement for cooperative approaches under the Paris Agreement (Article 6) between the Governments of Ghana and Switzerland. The first authorized mitigation activity under this bilateral cooperation has been developed in the agricultural sector with the objective to reduce methane emissions through the management of water in irrigated rice farming. 

The authorized Internationally Transferred Mitigation Outcome (ITMO) programme aims to introduce and promote the adoption of Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD) technique as a climate-smart agriculture practice for sustainable rice production. 

The ITMO programme targets a total of up to 20,500 ha per cropping season of the 2 seasons in a year and in total 242,600 ha of irrigated rice fields over the project duration. The adoption of AWD in these flooded, irrigated rice fields can bring in total approximately 1,200,000 tCO2e of emission reductions by 2030. 

For registration/onboarding or further questions, contact UNDP Environment & Climate Action Programme Analyst via 0594058533 or abdul-razak.saeed@undp.org