Abstract
In Ghana, most of the farmers are engaged in small-scale rainfed farming where the success is influenced by the prevailing weather conditions. Current Climate Information Services (CISs) only provide information on rainfall conditions to reduce their farming vulnerability to climate extremes. Access to other practical knowledge, such as soil moisture content would benefit farmers further in the decision-making process. This study aims to assess the role of soil moisture information in farmers’ agricultural decision-making and to understand how this information is being perceived, assessed, and applied. Exploratory research, combined with field visits and farmer interviews, was carried out in Gbulung, Napakzoo, and Yapalsi communities in the outskirts of Tamale, northern Ghana in October–December 2021. Results show that soil moisture information is highly important for activities, such as fertilizer application and sowing. Soil moisture information, however, is not readily available to the farmers, causing them to rely solely on their indigenous knowledge to monitor the soil moisture conditions. Our study reveals that developing a CIS embedded with soil moisture advisory module (CIS-SM) will help farmers in conducting strategic and tactical decision-making in their daily farming activities.
Highlights
Agriculture across many regions in the global south, such as Africa, Latin America, and South Asia, depend mainly on rainfed agriculture for their staple food production [1]
The main reason is that farming activities in this part of Ghana are dominated by men [54]
Another reason is that women have limited access to land, labor, and capital due to cultural, societal, and institutional restrictions [55,56]
Summary
Agriculture across many regions in the global south, such as Africa, Latin America, and South Asia, depend mainly on rainfed agriculture for their staple food production [1]. In Africa over 95% of agriculture is rainfed [2,3], contributing to 65% of the employment and 35% of the gross domestic product (GDP, [4]) on the continent. The economy of Ghana strongly relies on agricultural production that engages up to 50% of the country’s workforce and generates nearly one-quarter of the nation-wide GDP [7,8]. Most of the farmers are engaged in small-scale rainfed farming, where their success is affected by how they are able to match their decisions regarding farming practices to the prevailing weather condition [9,10]. Accessibility of hydro-climatic information services is of utmost importance for sustainable rainfed agricultural practices and leads to higher yields and minimum risk of crop failure [10,11]
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