Vulnerabilities of Smallholder Farmers' Livelihoods and Adaptations to Climate Change and Variability in Semi-Arid Northwestern Ghana: Observations and Perspectives

This study examines the vulnerability of smallholder farming households to climate change and variability (CCV) in Nandom District in semi-arid northwestern Ghana. It also assesses farmers' perceptions about agroecosystem services, climate information, and their well-being. The main objective of the study is to gather detailed information for developing policies. Therefore, models of the livelihood vulnerability index (LVI) and those of the LVI-Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (LVI-IPCC) were fitted to collected data, which covered a 31-year period. The LVI approach shows that vulnerability of smallholder farmers' livelihoods to climate change and variability (CCV) is significantly different among the farming communities in the study area of Nandom District in terms of their sociodemographic profile, food, water, and health. The combined LVI and LVI-IPCC concepts show that the impacts of CCV on smallholder farmers' livelihoods vary across these communities. Where agroecosystem services and climate information are sufficiently available, they appear to be the most significant determinants of effective adaptation practices resisting CCV. However, several factors, including low rainfall, bush burning, clear cutting, and floods, among others, are perceived by smallholder farmers as causes of the decline in agroecosystem services, prompting the farmers to express differentiated views about their well-being across communities in Nandom District. Thus, the vulnerability of smallholder farmers' adaptations are linked to the declining agroecosystem services and/or the variation in information about climate in the study area. Consideration of development policies and plans is imperative for sustainably improving adaptive capacity and livelihood strategies of smallholder farmers in the semi-arid zone.