Female owners of small and medium-sized enterprises have urged citizens to change their mindset and approach to climate change to minimise its impact on their businesses.
Mrs. Paulina Addo, a bakery and drinks shop operator in Kumasi, lamented how unpredictable rainfall patterns affect her business.
*”When it’s a season for heavy rainfall, I start panicking because I think of how to pay my children’s school fees and my workers. People barely come to buy pastries and drinks.
“Last Sunday, for instance, it rained from late morning till 6 pm, and at that time, nobody would come to buy pastries; they might just get some tea to drink and sleep,” she told the Ghana News Agency in an interview.
Mrs. Addo said many business owners operate on loans and struggle to make repayments due to reduced sales during extreme weather conditions.
“I, together with some women, have taken a loan from Asa Savings and Loans. I pay my loan every Wednesday. If by Wednesday I haven’t raised the required amount, they will demand payment from my group, who, in turn, will confront me unless I don’t come to work,” she bemoaned.
According to the United Nations, climate change refers to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns.
While some changes result from natural phenomena such as solar activity or volcanic eruptions, human activities, especially the burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil, and gas since the 1800s, have been the primary cause.
Burning fossil fuels generates greenhouse gas emissions that trap heat, raising global temperatures.
Effects include flooding, marine heat waves, melting sea ice, drought, storms, hurricanes, wildfires, thawing permafrost, and desertification.
Mrs. Habibatu Amadi, a mushroom farmer at Yamfo in the Tano North District, Ahafo Region, said her business had begun recovering after the previous dry season.
*”When it starts to rain, it helps the mushrooms grow well. When you put spores in the bags, you can get more than 200 going bad during the dry season out of a thousand. You also have to spray the mushrooms four times a day for them to grow well, which is financially draining and time-consuming.
“The mushrooms struggle to grow during prolonged dry seasons. If I expect to earn GH₵500 from a bag of mushrooms, I might not even get GH₵300 in a dry season,”* she said.
Mrs. Amadi urged the public to stop burning fossil fuels and plastic waste to curb climate change.
“We can use reusable bags instead of plastic. Even when we use plastic bags, some companies buy them for recycling into bowls, buckets, and chairs. Instead of indiscriminately disposing of or burning them, we can sell them.”
Ms. Alberta Nana Akyaa Akosa, founder of Agrihouse Foundation, said traditional smallholder farmers struggle during dry seasons as they lacked irrigation facilities.
She described illegal mining (galamsey) as another major challenge affecting female farmers and worsening climate change through deforestation, ecosystem poisoning, species endangerment, and land degradation.
“Women farmers are trading their lands for galamseyers, just like the men. Women cocoa farmers are selling their lands for short-term gains, like GH₵30,000, destroying their land in the long term and later spending huge sums to restore it,” she said.
Ms. Akosa urged all citizens to take action against climate change through sustainable practices that protect the country, strengthen the economy, ensure food security, and safeguard public health.
By Eunice Hilda A. Mensah/Priscilla Oye Ofori