Influence of demographic characteristics and social network on peri-urban smallholder farmers adaptation strategies - evidence from southern Ghana

Abstract

With a gamut of climate variability and change literature that examines rural spaces in the global south, and in the case of Ghana, rural spaces in the northern part, this article turns focus to a less targeted empirical space of peri-urban geography to examine demographic factors and the extent to which membership of social networks intersect with adaptation strategies. Specifically, we answer the research question: To what extent do demographic factors and membership of social networks influence smallholder farmers adaptation strategies in a peri-urban space in Ghana? Using a mixed-methods approach involving cross-sectional data on 150 smallholder crop farmers selected through random sampling, complemented by focus group discussions, we find that smallholder farmers’ demographic characteristics such as gender, age, educational level, farming experience as well as membership of Farmer Based Organizations (FBOs) significantly influenced adaptation strategies to climate variability. Gender, however inversely influenced alternate livelihood adaptation strategy. Agricultural advisory and extension services should target addressing specific gender needs, promote, and up-scale crop rotation, tree planting, and alternative livelihoods, as well as its intersection with demographic factors and FBO membership among farm households to improve resilience to climate variability and change in peri-urban spaces.