Understanding the Causes and Threats of Climate Change in Rural Ghana : Perspectives of Smallholder Farmers

This study examines the views of smallholder farmers about the causes of climate change, the effects of human activities on the climate and its implications for farming and livelihoods in three villages in the Adaklu District of the Volta region of rural Ghana. Data were collected from a purposively selected key informants who participated in a carefully organized focused group discussions and semi-structured in-depth interviews. The study participants were drawn from three case study villages of Anfoe, Torda and Wumenu in the Adaklu District. A total of nineteen (19) of smallholder farmers took part in the group interviews. The semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with two key informants who serve as agricultural extension services providers in the district. The study found that smallholder farmers are aware of warmer temperatures and rainfall patterns. The farmer groups reported that activities of the farming communities are responsible in various ways for the observed weather changes especially regarding unreliability and unpredictability of the rainfall, intensity and prolonged duration of the dry season. Study participants (.i.e. smallholder farmers) identified charcoal burning, tree-felling, shifting cultivation, slash and burn farming method and indiscriminate bush burning for purposes of hunting and tradition as potential triggers of the changes in the weather conditions. Majority of interviewees believed that there is a link between the coping economic activities of farmers and the weather problem. According to them, embracing mixed-farming methods and livelihood diversification is helping to adapt and cope with the changing weather condition. The smallholder farmers reported that there has not been any education or support service from the local government and/or public institutions aimed to help them cope with the effects of climate change. The study findings support earlier studies which found that climate change and its causes are anthropogenic and directly linked to social and economic activities of humans wherever they live, including small holder farmers. National and local governments would have to device strategies to support farming communities in the form education, construction of dams for all year round farming and introduce them to sustainable alternative livelihood options to help improve adaptive and coping capacity of vulnerable smallholder farmers