Climate Smart Agriculture Practices in Semi-arid Northern Ghana: Implications for Sustainable Livelihoods

Rahinatu Sidiki Alare,Kwadwo Owusu,Erasmus Henaku Owusu

doi:10.5539/jsd.v11n5p57

Abstract

Achieving food security and livelihood development among vulnerable households in the semi-arid regions is challenged by water scarcity and climate change. To alleviate the challenges of water scarcity and climate change impacts, farmers are adopting different climate smart agriculture (CSA) practices. However, there is limited knowledge on the contribution of CSA practices to livelihoods of farmers in semi-arid northern Ghana. Therefore, this paper explored CSA practices adopted by smallholder farmers and assessed the contribution of dry season farming to livelihoods in rural semi-arid Ghana. Using data from 100 households, farm income, household food security and subjective wellbeing (SWB) were compared between dry season farmers and non-dry season ones. The findings showed that socio-economic factors hindered the utilisation of practices with high start-up cost such as rain water harvesting. Farmers also adopted other practices based on the benefits, ease of use and geographical context. Comparing dry season farmers and non-dry season ones, the results showed that dry season farming had great potentials of improving income, food security (66%) and wellbeing (P&gt;0.01) of rural households in semi-arid Ghana. However, adopting CSA practices only without instituting programmes to address other socio-economic challenges faced by smallholder farmers will yield minimal impacts. Complementing CSA initiatives with poverty alleviation programmes will effectively contribute to improved livelihoods in resource poor communities.

Highlights

Smallholder farming dominates the agricultural landscape in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and mostly operates on less than 2 ha in total landholdings (Lowder et al, 2014)
Evidence from this study shows that, Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) practices can only make effective contribution if it takes into consideration the geographical and the socio-economic context of the place of intervention
The analysis of the livelihood outcome of farmers indicates that dry season farmers were better off than the ones who cultivated only in rainy season in terms of generating income and providing food security for households

Summary

Introduction

Smallholder farming dominates the agricultural landscape in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and mostly operates on less than 2 ha in total landholdings (Lowder et al, 2014) While these little agriculture realities provides food security and income for many households, it faces the challenge of increasing production to ensure food security for the growing population alongside with preserving its environment and natural resource base (FAO, 2013). These goals are further exacerbated by climate change and variability interacting with pre-existing socio-economic, cultural and political inequalities to shape vulnerability. CSA embodies existing strategies on sustainable land management (SLM) practices such as, among others, conservative agriculture, agroforestry, integrated livestock jsd.ccsenet.org

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