Perceptions of weather variability and climate change on goat producers’ choice of coping and adaptation strategies: evidence from climate-smart and non-climate-smart villages in the Jirapa and Lawra districts

Abstract

ABSTRACT We examine how goat farmers’ perceptions of weather variability and climate change condition their coping and adaptation behaviour. Through a survey, we obtain a household level data from goat producers in designated climate-smart and non-climate-smart villages of the Lawra and Jirapa districts in Upper West region of Ghana. Data are analysed using a multivariate probit model to assess how perceptions and other factors influence coping and adaptation strategy choices. Seven main coping/adaptation strategies are used by goat farmers to deal with weather variability and climate change. Our econometric results show that goat farmers’ perceptions and being located in a climate-smart village, as well as market and extension information influence the choice of coping and adaptation strategies towards climate change. The results suggest that perceptions of weather variability and climate change have significant positive influence on all adaptation strategies, and that these adaptation strategies are complementary to each other as evidenced by their high inter-correlations. The fact that farmers located in climate-smart villages are more likely to adopt strategies that enable them to cope with and adapt to weather variability and climate change signals the need for project implementers to extend the number of villages benefiting from the climate-smart village concept.