The role of institutions in enhancing climate change adaptation by smallholder farmers in the Talensi district of Ghana

The Talensi district is home to many institutions offering diverse adaptation interventions, especially for smallholder farmers. However, there is a lack of empirical research on various institutional-led adaptation actions, their outcomes, and the challenges limiting their implementation. This case study of institutional interventions in the Talensi district focuses on three dimensions of institutions’ operations—scale, scope and sustainability. Using qualitative primary data collected from eight institutions, the study found that institutional interventions were primarily delivered through four key mechanisms: training and capacity building, technology transfer, input supply, and marketing and value chain integration. These interventions enabled smallholder farmers to adopt adaptive practices, improve productivity, and strengthen resilience to climate-related risks. Beyond adaptation-specific goals, the institutions also supported broader livelihood objectives such as income diversification and food security. However, the effectiveness and sustainability of these interventions were constrained by several challenges, including limited policy support, donor-driven priorities, inadequate financial and human resources, weak planning and coordination, poor transparency, and difficulties in mobilizing and maintaining farmer groups. These limitations hindered the long-term impact of institutional efforts to reduce vulnerability and enhance adaptive capacity in the district. As farmers depend on different institutions to pursue their adaptation objectives, our findings offer practical and policy insights for designing context-specific institutional support mechanisms that strengthen smallholder adaptation and avoid maladaptive outcomes. Our findings highlight the need for stronger inter-institutional collaboration and synergies, targeted capacity building, more inclusive policy frameworks and sustained policy backing that align interventions with farmers’ adaptive capacities and local contexts to address structural barriers to adaptation. This study contributes to the understanding of institutional roles in climate adaptation and offers insights to guide the design of responsive adaptation policies and programmes within broader rural development efforts to enhance impact. Future research should incorporate the role of informal institutions alongside formal ones to capture a more holistic view of local adaptation dynamics, particularly the grassroots mechanisms and indigenous knowledge systems that shape smallholder farmers’ decisions.