Antwi-Agyei, P, Stringer, LC and Dougill, AJ (2014) Livelihood adaptations to climate variability: insights from farming households in Ghana. Regional Environmental Change, 14 (4). 1615 - 1626. ISSN 1436-3798
Abstract
Climate variability poses a significant threat to many sectors of Sub-Saharan Africa's economy. Agriculture is one of the most climate sensitive sectors because of its dependence on rain-fed cultivation. This paper identifies the main adaptation strategies used by farming households in the Sudan savannah and forest-savannah transitional agro-ecological zones of Ghana, in order to reduce the adverse impacts of climate variability on their livelihood activities. It combines questionnaire surveys, key informant interviews and a range of participatory methods. Results show that households employ a range of on- and off-farm adaptation strategies including changing the timing of planting, planting early maturing varieties, diversification of crops, support from family and friends, and changing their diets to manage climate variability. Results reveal that most households use adaptation strategies linked to livelihood diversification to adapt to the increased climate variability seen in recent decades. Most households now engage in multiple non-arable farming livelihood activities in an attempt to avoid destitution because of crop failure linked to climate variability (particularly drought). The findings suggest that policy makers need to formulate more targeted climate adaptation policies and programmes that are linked to enhancing livelihood diversification, as well as establishing communication routes for farming communities to better share their knowledge on successful local climate adaptation strategies.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | (c) 2014, Springer. This is an author produced version of a paper published in Regional Environmental Change. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10113-014-0597-9 |
Keywords: | Drought; Coping; Climate change; Sub-Saharan Africa; Agriculture; Rural livelihoods |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Earth and Environment (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 25 Sep 2014 10:52 |
Last Modified: | 18 Jun 2015 17:39 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10113-014-0597-9 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Springer Verlag |
Identification Number: | 10.1007/s10113-014-0597-9 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:80400 |