ADOPTION AND OUTPUT EFFECT OF CLIMATE RESILIENT AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES AMONG SMALLHOLDER MAIZE FARMERS IN TWO DISTRICTS IN NORTHERN REGION, GHANA

Abstract

Smallholder farmers have come to appreciate the reality of the existence and devastating effect of climate change on their output levels over the past decades. However, the farmers are yet to come to terms with agricultural practices that will mitigate the effect of climate change and at the same time preserve the environment for future generations. Based on such realities, ActionAid Ghana in partnership with the Urban Agriculture Network (UrbANet) implemented the Climate Resilient and Sustainable Agriculture (CRSA) practices project. This study investigated smallholder farmers' awareness and adoption of CRSA practices promoted by the UrbANet project, and its resultant impact on maize output. A sample size of 240 farmers was selected, comprising 116 participants and 124 non-participants through stratified and simple random sampling. The study revealed that sex, membership of farmer based organisation, farm size and age had positive and significant effects on farmers' participation in the UrbANet project whilst experience and household size negatively influenced participation, The result of the Propensity Score Matching (PSM) shows a statistically significant (5% level) difference of 171.23 kg between participants and non-participants. The study concluded that the adoption of CRSA practices has proven to substantially improve maize output while the conscious targeting of female farmers has proven that policies towards improving agricultural policies, if well implemented, could bridge the gender gap in agricultural participation and improve output significantly even in the face of the devastating effect of climate change. To ensure increased adoption of the CRSA practices among women, the deliberate targeting effort by the UbANet project should be stepped-up including the devolution of land ownership in a manner that does not continuously relegate female farmers to small or unproductive farm sizes.