NGO Participatory Approaches for Promoting Environmental Consciousness Among Subsistence Farmers in Ghana

Abstract

Agriculture contributes a fifth of the greenhouse gas emissions on earth. To help reduce this large ecological footprint, there is the need for collaborative efforts aimed at increasing farmers' environmental consciousness. This chapter used the ladder of participation as a framework to assess how knowledge co-creation between local farmers in Ghana's Upper West Region and NGO agro-technocrats is associated with farmers' environmental consciousness. Using an exploratory sequential mixed method design, in-depth interviews and focus group discussions were conducted with NGO officers and beneficiary farmers. Probability sampling was then used to select 1,050 beneficiary farmers for interviews and analysed using descriptive statistics and logistic regressions. Results show that the use of robust categories of participation were associated with farmers' increased likelihood of adopting most of the environmentally conscious practices co-created. Conversely, less robust participatory approaches resulted in either a reduced likelihood of adoption or non-adoption among beneficiary farmers.