Dr. Adukpo and his colleagues, including U.S. partner William Gutowski, published their most recent joint paper in the June 2014 issue of the International Journal of Geosciences. The paper uses the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) Regional Climate Model, Version 3 (RegCM3), and rain gauge data selected from the Ghana Meteorological Agency (GMet) from 1990 to 2008 to investigate the extent and nature of variability in the annual rainfall and pattern of the rainy seasons in Ghana. In the study, six meteorological stations selected from three rainfall distribution zones according to the divisions of the GMet were used to study the pattern of rainfall and its departure from the normal trend. The model had difficulty simulating the departures accurately in direction and magnitude for all the stations except for Accra, where RegCM3 simulated them correctly. The findings of the study will contribute valuable information for agriculture and water resources management in Ghana.

Earlier in 2014, several of Dr. Adukpo’s students gave seminar presentations at the Department of Physics as part of their continuous assessments towards the M.Phil degree. They submitted their final theses in June 2014 to the School of Research and Graduate Studies of the University of Cape Coast. In September 2014, another of the team’s jointly published papers, “Farmer’s observation on climate change impacts on Maize (Zea mays) production in a selected Agro-Ecological zone in Ghana,” was presented at the Fifth International Conference of the Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World, which was held in Cuernavaca, Mexico. 

To disseminate their findings and recommendations broadly, the research team also visited farmlands and discussed changes with the farmers impacted by the rainfall season, as well as organized a workshop on climate change and food security in Ghana.

Publications

N.A.B. Klutse, K. Owusu, D.C. Adukpo, F. Nkrumah, K. Quagraine, A. Owusu, W.J. Gutowski. 2013. Farmer’s observation on climate change impacts on Maize (Zea mays) production in a selected agro-ecological zone in Ghana. Research Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Management 2(12): 394-402, December 2013.  https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/38939991.pdf

F. Nkrumah; N.A.B. Klutse, D.C. Adukpo, K. Quagraine, K. Owusu, A. Owusu, W. Gutowski Jr. 2014. Rainfall variability over Ghana: model versus rain gauge observation. International Journal of Geosciences 5(7): 673-683. http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ijg.2014.57060


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