Climate Change Adaptation Strategies and Livelihood Vulnerability of Smallholder Farmers in the Sissala East Municipality

Abstract

Climate adaptation is the process through which vulnerable farmers and families use measures to lessen the negative effects of climate fluctuation on ecosystems and livelihoods. To mitigate the impact of climate change on agricultural livelihoods, smallholder farmers adopted adaptation measures that might lessen the hazards associated with climate change. The study seeks to examine climate change adaptation strategies and livelihood vulnerabilities of smallholder farmers in the Sissala East Municipality in the Upper West Region of Ghana. The study employed the concurrent embedded mixed method research design for data including a survey of 120, focused group discussions key informant interviews. Data was analyzed using the Livelihood Vulnerability Index (LVI) to examine livelihood vulnerability of smallholder farmers, Fractional Probit regression model in analyzing the effects of climate adaptation approaches on farmers’ livelihood and the Poisson regression model was used to analyze the factors influencing farmers’ climate adaptation intensity in the study area. The results of the study reveal that, the various changes in climate perceived by farmers in northern Ghana include changes in the timing or predictability of rains, and overall drier conditions and both changes are corroborated by precipitation datasets and farmers who are more vulnerable are more likely to increase their climate adaptation strategies intensity to enhance farm production and productivity to combat food insecurity. The study therefore recommends that, therefore, the government through the Ministry of Agriculture as well as non-governmental organizations should introduce masseuse to reduce climate change in rural areas as well as address farmers' vulnerability to climate change to ensure farmers' vulnerability does not increase beyond farmers' threshold point.