THE ROLE OF CLIMATE CHANGE COMMUNICATION ON THE ADOPTION OF CLIMATE-SMART AGRICULTURE BY SMALLHOLDER FARMERS IN NORTHERN REGION OF GHANA

Abstract

Agriculture in Ghana is increasingly becoming vulnerable to climate change due to its dependence on rainfed. To tackle current food insecurity and climate change, the agricultural sector of Ghana must be transformed to become climate-smart. This requires reducing the vulnerability and enhancing the resilience of the sector to the changing climate. This involves the provision of access to and use of climate change information by smallholder farmers through climate change communication. The study looked at the role of Climate Change Communication (CCC) in the adoption of Climate-Smart Agriculture by smallholder farmers in the Northern Region of Ghana. Descriptive statistics were used to determine the role of climate change communication in the adoption of climate-smart agriculture by smallholder farmers. A multistage sampling technique was used to select the study population. Data was collected using a questionnaire. The data was imputed into STATA and analysed using descriptive statistics such as frequencies and percentages. Quantitative data was analyzed with the help of Computer Assisted Programmed Interviewing (CAPI) whiles qualitative data was analysed based on content analysis. The findings revealed that there is a high level of awareness of climate change among smallholder farmers in the region. Challenges smallholder farmers in the region face in accessing climate change information included discussions on climate change issues being too scientific, using the language the local people do not understand, lack of mobile network, poor radio network and lack of access to radio sets. The study recommends that the government of Ghana should include “youth in extension” as one of the flagship programmes to increase the number of extension agents in the country.