Madam Barbra Baidoo, a Research Fellow at the United Nations University Institute for Natural Resources in Africa (UNU-INRA), explained that some proven existing indigenous knowledge were failing hence the need to embrace that of modern science to ensure productivity.

"Farmers over a long period with aid of plants, animals, (metaphysical) archaeological indicators like the sun, the moon, the stars predict, for instance, the onset of rains but they see the signs and the rains fail," testimonies from the field she said confirmed.

The Scientist said relying on modern meteorological information about onset of rains would enable smallholder farmers in rural communities experience irregular rainfall patterns, an impact of climate change, to build adaptive capacity and resilience.

Madam Baidoo made the recommendation at an event organized by UNU-INRA and WASCAL in Accra to share findings of the Landsurf Project and train national stakeholders on the usage of a newly developed decision support system.

The three-year Landsurf project supported by the German Federal Ministry of High Education and Research, sought to create a high-resolution regional earth system model for West Africa (WESM), together with an interactive Decision Support System (DSS) for use in agriculture, food production, and land management.

"So, for example if a particular farmer identifies clouds gathering in the east, they know that it is going to rain heavily or the rains are about to set in. These are good indications, but farmers need to get second opinion from relevant bodies like meteorological agencies to commence farming activities,"

She urged scientists to help document and consolidate all local indigenous knowledge, and where necessary assist to improve on it to contribute to productivity and build climate resistance.

"Smallholder farmers have been sustaining us for all these years and we cannot take them for granted so we need to support them to deliver. We need to tap into the indigenous knowledge and polish them," she said.

Dr. Ferdinand Tornyie, a Research Fellow at the UNU-INRA, said a critical part of LANDSURF was the development of a web portal as an interactive DSS for use in agriculture, food production and land management.

He noted that the portal would help people to take decisions in real time information to be able to plan cropping, to be able to plan in terms of rain, and in the incidence of flood.