Abstract
Climate change has diverse physical and socio-economic implications for communities in semi-arid areas. While several studies have sought to understand the underlying power relations that shape adaptive capacities of rural farmers, fewer studies have focused on unpacking the differences within the different social groups. In this paper, we present a case study based on women smallholder farmers from semi-arid Ghana. It explores their nuanced perceptions of climate variability and highlights how gender intersects with other identities, roles and responsibilities to influence adaptation strategies and barriers to adaptation in the semi-arid context. Farm-level data was collected from 103 women farmers using semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions and key informant interviews. Rainfall patterns were perceived by the women farmers to be increasingly erratic and perceptions of average temperatures were that they are increasing. Adoption of adaptation strategies were influenced by socio-demographic factors such as age, marital and residential status, which also influenced decision-making and power dynamics within the household. The paper highlighted the complex relationships that mediate women farmers’ access to resources and influence their vulnerability to climate variability and change. Highlighting the intra-gender differences that shaped the adaptation options and adaptive capacity is a prerequisite for proper adaptation policy planning and targeting.
Highlights
The impacts of a changing climate on the lives and livelihoods of the global poor have become increasingly clear
We focus on unpacking the different identities of women small scale farmers in semi-arid Ghana and on identifying the factors that influence their adaptation strategies
The research findings are organized under three broad themes: (1) the perceptions of climate variability and change (2) adoption of adaptation strategies to climate change and variability; and (3) barriers to climate change adaptation
Summary
The impacts of a changing climate on the lives and livelihoods of the global poor have become increasingly clear. These impacts are expected to disproportionately affect smallholder farmers in the semi-arid areas of Africa (Niang et al 2014). Key climatic impacts in semi-arid areas include increasing temperatures, dry spells, changes in timing of the onset and ending of rainy seasons and changes in lengths of crop growing periods. These changes will affect agricultural production and threaten household food security (Ogra and Badola 2015; Sarr et al 2015). While many rural households have long adapted to environmental change, the rapidness and duration of current climate variability and change erodes opportunities to adjust to climate risks
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