Adoption of Climate Smart Agricultural Technologies among Smallholder Farmers in Semi-Arid Ghana

Abstract

The evidence of climate change and variability in semi-arid Ghana is glaring and the adverse impact is being felt mostly by smallholder farmers because of their over dependence on agriculture for livelihood and subsistence. As a solution to building the resilience of the smallholder farmers, the Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) concept was introduced a decade ago by the Food and Agriculture Organization, guided by three key principles of adaptation to climate change, greenhouse gas emissions reduction and promotion of food security. The paper sought to assess the level of awareness of climate smart agriculture practices and the respective rate of adoption of these practices. Moreso, this paper established how Normalised Difference Water Index (NDWI) and Land Surface Temperature (LST) affects the adoption rate of CSA practices or technologies. The study employed the explanatory sequential mixed research methods. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect data from 300 smallholder farmers and 16 focus group discussions were conducted, with a total of 180 persons taking part in the focus group discussions. Key informant interviews were also conducted for 11 relevant stakeholders from governmental and non-governmental institutions. Findings from this study reveal that CSA practices such as intercropping, manure management and mulching had a 100% adoption rate, and the least adopted practice was irrigation followed by dry season gardening. The NDWI and LST analysis concluded that Nandom is the most viable among the two municipals to support irrigation projects since it has more capacity to retain surface water during the dry and wet seasons.