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The Director of Soil Research Institute (STI), Dr Joseph Fening, has urged African leaders to provide adequate resources for research on climate change to help address the threat it poses to agriculture and the livelihoods of farmers on the continent. He said climate change discussion in Ghana and most African countries had been left out of the mainstream policy issues and, therefore, there was a need for governments and policy makers to pay much attention to the phenomenon if the continent was to achieve food security and reduce poverty. International conference Dr Fening said this at the opening of a two-day international conference on enhancing resilience to climate and ecosystem changes in semi-arid regions across sub-Saharan Africa hosted by the University for Development Studies (UDS) in Tamale, yesterday. The conference was organised by Climate and Ecosystem Change Adaption and Resilience Research in Africa dubbed: CECAR-Africa, and supported by the Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA) and Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST). It was aimed at adapting strategies for mitigating impacts of climate and ecosystem changes on developing societies. The CECAR-Africa research is a five-year project which focuses on forecast and assessment of climate and ecosystem change impact on agro-diversity, risk assessment of extreme weather hazards and development of adaptive resource management method and implementing capacity development programmes for local residents and professionals. Attendance The conference is being attended by researchers and scientists across the globe. Dr Fening asked researchers to come out with solutions that would help build the capacities of resource-poor communities to address the challenges of climate and ecosystem changes. He further urged researchers to share their findings with communities in which they undertake their research, and advised them not to undermine indigenous knowledge but use them together with their scientific knowledge. Professor Alfred Oteng-Yeboah of the Department of Botany, University of Ghana, said tackling climate change issues would help promote sustainable agriculture that would increase food security for export to generate revenue for developmental projects. Prof. Wisdom Akpalu, the Associate Professor of United Nations University (UNU), University of Ghana, said �Managing climate change is all about managing risks of an uncertain future. It is about being ahead of the curve by putting in place proactive adaptation and mitigation measures that prepare individuals, whole communities and institutions to be ahead of both expected and unexpected shocks.�