Abstract
Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) has been identified as the best way forward to contribute to mitigating climate change for enhanced agriculture productivity. The study was conducted in Asokwa Municipal in the Ashanti region of Ghana as a case study with the following objectives; to identify existing CSA practices adopted by vegetable farmers; to evaluate existing institutions and their role in facilitating the adoption of CSA practices and to establish the likely factors that may promote or inhibit adoption of CSA practices. Purposive sampling was used to select twenty-seven participants due to restrictions on COVID-19 and limited resources. The significance of this method is that participants are selected by virtue of their capacity to provide rich-textured information relevant to the phenomenon under study. Results from the field showed that the commonly adopted CSA practices were improved crop varieties, irrigation and manure management scoring 100% each followed by crop rotation (66.7%). The least adopted practices, from the highest to the lowest were agroforestry (12.5%), mulching and rain harvesting (8.3%) each and compost application with 4.2%. The key factors inhibiting the adoption of CSA consist of insufficient information, water scarcities and financial constraints. The conclusion drawn was that the Agricultural sector must become climate-smart to successfully tackle current food security and climate change challenges. Beyond doubt, it will require management and governance practices based on ecosystem approaches that involves multi-stakeholder and multi-sectoral coordination and cooperation.
Highlights
Population growth, rapid urbanization, and dietary changes are placing tremendous pressure on food systems, in developing countries
The participants educational background starts from Primary, Junior High School (JHS) / Middle School Leaving Certificate (MSLC), Senior High School (SHS) / Ordinary Level (O Level) and Advanced Level (A Level) through to tertiary
The Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) has become a pathway towards development and food security and it is built on three pillars: increasing productivity, enhancing resilience of livelihoods and ecosystems and reducing and removing greenhouse gas emissions from the atmosphere
Summary
Population growth, rapid urbanization, and dietary changes are placing tremendous pressure on food systems, in developing countries. The challenges posed by rapid growth in food demand are intensified by the effects of climate change on agricultural systems, including crops, forestry, livestock and fisheries. Climate change and extreme weather events, such as severe droughts and crop failure - triggers of food insecurity crises pose further challenges to sustainable development across the continent (Aggarwal et al, 2018; Barrett et al, 2017; Ubilava, 2018). The recent El Niño droughts in Southern Africa devastated maize yields in the 2015/16 farming seasons and was grievous as it resulted in massive food security crises in the
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