STRATEGIES OF FARMERS IN THE BAWKU WEST DISTRICT OF GHANA TO MITIGATE THE IMPACTS OF CLIMATE VARIABILITY ON FARMING

Abstract

The livelihoods of the people of northern Ghana, particularly those in rural areas, depend to a large extent on agriculture. Farmers in these areas have noticed variations in the climate. Accordingly, they have formulated coping strategies to avoid substantial or complete losses in livestock and crop productivity. However, the extreme climatic variations in recent years have threatened the resilience of current adaptive strategies, and failures in crop and livestock productivity are on the rise. The inevitable changes predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and other scientists demand an understating of the coping strategies of rural farmers and recent crop production in order to develop capacity-building programs for farmers. Field data was collected from 135 farmers and key informants in the Bawku West District using semistructured questionnaires and checklists, and the data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The results indicate that farmers in the study area practice mixed farming with a current focus on the rearing of goats and poultry, the cultivation of new and improved crop varieties, and the planting of early-maturing crop varieties in floodprone areas. The findings suggest that the capacities of farmers should be enhanced through the provision of reliable information on climatic variations and access to farm implements, farm inputs, irrigation facilities, and credit facilities to help farmers enhance productivity and engage in other income-generating activities.