Characterizing and Explaining Smallholder Households’ Views and Understanding of Climate Change in the Bongo District of Ghana

Philip Aniah

doi:10.11648/j.earth.20160502.12

Abstract

Africa is amongst the most susceptible regions to climate change and this situation is intensified by the interaction of ‘multiple stresses’ and the low adaptive capacity of smallholder households. Agricultural production and livelihood security in many African countries are severely weakened by climate change. The paper seeks to contribute to the growing empirical and policy discourse on climate change by examining smallholder households’ views and understanding of climate change. The research combined qualitative methods (FGD’s, historical timelines and interviews) with a quantitative method (survey) and analyzed the data using descriptive and inferential statistics such as percentages, trend analysis and bivariate correlations to investigate the relationships and differences of the variables. The results indicate that smallholder households believe that the rainfall pattern of the Bongo district is characterized by erratic rainfall, reduced rainfall, late onset, short duration and high temperature which have resulted in significant crop failure. The results further show that smallholder households associate climate change to bush burning, deforestation {hegemonic representation} whiles others associate climate change to breaking of taboos and the disrespect for the beliefs, spirits, gods (life forces) {polemic representation}. Over 95% of household believe climate change poses severe negative consequences for their farming activities and livelihoods {emancipated representation}. These perceptions by smallholder households were corroborated by rainfall and temperature records from the Ghana Meteorological Agency in the Bongo district. Livelihood diversification strategies, including off-farm income sources should be robustly pursued and more specific and targeted climate adaptation policies needs to be formulated by policy makers to reduce the vulnerabilities of smallholder households whose livelihoods depend largely on rain-fed agriculture.

Highlights

Africa is amongst the most susceptible regions to climate change; this situation is intensified by the interaction of ‘multiple stresses’ which takes place at different degrees as well as the low adaptive capacity of smallholder households [7]
Agricultural production and livelihood security in many African countries are expected to be severely weakened by climate change
Households indicated that the rainfall pattern has become highly erratic, short and reduced amount of rainfall whiles temperature for the growing season have become hotter

Summary

Introduction

Africa is amongst the most susceptible regions to climate change; this situation is intensified by the interaction of ‘multiple stresses’ which takes place at different degrees as well as the low adaptive capacity of smallholder households [7]. In many parts of Africa for that matter Ghana, farmers and pastoralists have to contend with other extreme natural resource challenges and constraints such as poor soil fertility, pests, crop and animal diseases, and a lack of access to inputs and improved seeds. These challenges are usually compounded by periods of prolonged droughts and/or floods and are often severe during the growing season [36]

Methods

Results

Conclusion