Ghanaian describes to CRS how climate change affects local farmers

Published: 2007-04-11

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (CNS) -- When Hippolyt Pul was a young boy, farmers in his home country of Ghana often referred to the feast of the Ascension as "the feast of the bean leaf." Rain came like clockwork each year right after Easter, so farmers planted their first seeds no more than two weeks after the holy day. "The black bean was one of the first crops to be planted, as its leaves served as an important stopgap food for the many households whose granaries would have run empty by this time of the year," Pul recently wrote in an e-mail to Dennis Fisher, education program officer for the Northeast regional office of Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. bishops' overseas relief and development agency. The rainfall was so consistent that "by the time Ascension was celebrated, the hungry would be fed with the bean leaves. By the third week of June, the bean crop itself was taken in to boost household food security," wrote Pul, director of CRS' West Africa regional office. But farmers in Ghana no longer refer to the "feast of the bean leaf," said Pul. The rains have become erratic in recent years, affecting the traditional planting season, and he believes the disruption is caused by global climate change.

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