Meaningful climate change communication: an analysis of women dry season farmers in Kuliyaa community of Ghana

Abstract

ABSTRACT Access to climate change information can play a critical role in helping rural women adapt to climate change. Our research investigates the communication channels used for climate education among female dry-season farmers in the Kuliyaa community of northern Ghana. Particularly, we address access to climate change information among smallholder female farmers. We adopted a community-based participatory approach to guide the study. To achieve our research objectives of investigating climate change communication channels among smallholder female farmers, specific methods of in-depth interviews and focus group discussions were used to gather knowledge from smallholder female farmers. The research findings provide a well-rounded exploration of the unique climate change communication challenges female farmers face and the innovative approaches they have adopted to share climate change information. Specifically, the findings show that women have adopted innovative oral communication channels to disseminate and transfer climate knowledge among themselves. We also found that there is limited access to radio in the Kuliyaa community making them resort to group meetings to share knowledge and ideas empowering them economically in other livelihoods. The study discovered the community utilises gender inclusivity in decision-making. We recommend that the government and other relevant organisations to develop and implement a strategic policy on climate information dissemination with a focus on supporting farmers in rural communities of Ghana to mitigate climate change effects. Technologies can also be developed to aid in disseminating relevant information to farmers in rural areas as the available oral communication is less effective in disseminating useful information on climate change.