Vulnerability and Adaptation of Farming Households to Climatic and Non-Climatic Stressors in Semi-Arid Ghana

Abstract

Since the latter part of the 20th Century to date, climate change has received considerable global attention due to its threats on all sectors of the global economy, particularly agriculture. Sub-Saharan Africa, for which Ghana is part, is considered as most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and variability due to its low adaptive capacity and dependent on predominantly rain-fed agriculture. Farmers in Ghana and beyond are not only prone to climatic stressors but also to non-climatic stressors. Studies have been conducted across a range of geographical settings about how climate change adversely affect the activities of farming households. Though insightful, there are, however, few examples of how climatic and non-climatic stressors influence vulnerability and adaptation decisions of farming households. Using the Lawra District in northwest Ghana, this thesis examines the vulnerability and adaptation of farming households and communities to climatic and non-climatic stressors. The study employs both quantitative and qualitative approach, including semi-structured questionnaire interviews, participatory methods, expert interviews, meteorological information and soil samples to explore the wide range of stressors shaping the activities of farming households in the district. The results demonstrate that, without prompting, farmers cited a range of climatic and non-climatic conditions that affect farming and household activities. Male and female farmers differ in their perception of the severity of perceived stressors, and this is likely to affect their adaptation decisions. The results also demonstrate that farmers know the causes and the effects of the stressors they cited. The results, further, show that scientific information did not always support farmers' perception of climate change. The results from the vulnerability assessment reveal households within and across communities differ in their vulnerabilities to climatic and non-climatic stressors. The results reveal that the farmers utilised various adaptation strategies contingent on the perception of climatic and non-climatic stressors and that the effects of climate change may not be the reason why farmers utilised certain adaptation strategies. Using binary logistic regression, the results reveal that membership of a social group, use of fertiliser, crop diversity and communication diversity are key determinants of farmers’ adaptation to non-climatic stressors and that the same, as well as age, determine adaptation to climatic stressors. The results indicate that farmers’ adaptation to climate change is not in isolation from institutional supports. The farmers’ ability to adapt to climate change is also tied to supports from traditional authority, extended family system, friendship, community and governmental and non-governmental institutions. The study recommends that governmental and non-governmental institutions should invest in agricultural as well as non-agricultural activities to improve the socio-economic state of the farmers. Policymakers need to formulate adaptation policies that target both climatic and non-climatic stressors and that such policies should also consider the vulnerability of men as well. Formal and informal institutions should work synergistically, through programmes, to enhance natural, human, social, financial and physical capitals of farmers.