Solidaridad launches NISCOPS, inaugurates advisory committee in Ghana

The National Initiatives for Sustainable and Climate-smart Oil Palm Smallholders (NISCOPS) has been launched by Solidaridad in Accra, Ghana. 

NISCOPS is a five-year strategic programme aimed at enabling government in key oil palm producing countries to support and work with farmers towards a sustainable climate smart palm oil production as well as contribute to the Paris agreement Nationally- Determined Contributions (NDCs) objectives and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The programme is being implemented in Ghana, Nigeria, Indonesia and Malaysia with the initial funding support from the Government of Netherlands with an implementation phase I from 2020 to 2023 and implementation phase II from 2024 and beyond.

The regional director, Solidaridad West Africa, Mr Isaac Gyamfi, during the launch of the programme in Accra and inauguration of the programme’s National Advisory Committee (NAC) said, “We make bold here to say Solidaridad is in tanderm with current global and local realities especially on climate change and agriculture and we are now using our over 50 years’ experience of both foot and brain on the ground through our works to contribute to shaping practices and policies at local, districts, national and global levels.” 

The organisation has been in Ghana’s oil palm landscape since 2012 promoting yield intensification at both the farm and mill levels through introduction of Best Management Practices (BMP) and improved processing technology where it also supported the revitalisation of the Oil Palm Development Association of Ghana (OPDAG) and played significant role in the establishment of Tree Crops Development Authority under Sustainable West Africa Oil Palm Program (SWAPP).

In his presentation, Solidaridad’s senior climate specialist for Africa and  NISCOPS technical coordinator, Dr Samson Samuel Ogallah, stated that the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of the programme is built on the three pillars of Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) of productivity, adaptation and mitigation. 

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