scholarly journals Structural Equation Modelling of Perception for Sustainable Agriculture as Climate Change Mitigation Strategy in Ghana

Author(s):  
Jacob Ankamah ◽  
Theophilus Tweneboah Kodua ◽  
Mary Addae

Abstract Background Ghana’s agriculture sector has contributed significantly to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) over the past decades even though there has been persistent decline of about 12.8% in the last seven years. It decreased from 31.8% in 2009 to merely 19% as of September 2015, a period of seven years. In spite of these trends, sustainable agriculture has been observed to be a game changer in agricultural development and growth globally. Sustainable agriculture is partly dependent on the attitude of the present agriculture students who represent the potential officers to impart sustainable agriculture knowledge to farmers. It is therefore relevant to assess the perception of students toward the concept of sustainable agriculture on climate change to inform policy decisions and interventions. Methods To assess the perception of students’ toward sustainable agriculture, this study sampled 120 final year undergraduate students’ in the School of Agriculture at the College of Basic and Applied Sciences, University of Ghana, Legon. The study used a well-structured questionnaire to solicit students’ perception for sustainable agriculture, its’ adoption barriers and perceived strategies to address the barriers in Ghana. Results Findings indicated that students’ perception for sustainable agriculture is positive. Majority of the students (78%) were of the view that sustainable agricultural practices would help protect the environment and our natural resources, therefore could mitigate adverse effects of climate change on agricultural activities. Conclusions Students ranked perceived barriers to sustainable agriculture adoption as; economic costs, lack of knowledge and land tenure constraints. Strategic ways to address the barriers were identified as farmer-to-farmer education, provision of financial incentives, developing training and partnership programs, and participatory learning.

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacob Ankamah ◽  
Theophilus Tweneboah Kodua ◽  
Mary Addae

Abstract Background Ghana’s agriculture sector has contributed significantly to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) over the past decades even though there has been persistent decline of about 12.8% in the last 7 years. It decreased from 31.8% in 2009 to merely 19% as of September 2015, a period of 7 years. In spite of these trends, sustainable agriculture has been observed to be a game changer in agricultural development and growth globally. Sustainable agriculture is partly dependent on the attitude of the present agriculture students who represent the potential officers to impart sustainable agriculture knowledge to farmers. It is therefore relevant to assess the perception of students toward the concept of sustainable agriculture on climate change to inform policy decisions and interventions. Methods To assess the perception of students’ toward sustainable agriculture, this study sampled 120 final year undergraduate students’ in the School of Agriculture at the College of Basic and Applied Sciences, University of Ghana, Legon. The study used a well-structured questionnaire to solicit students’ perception for sustainable agriculture, its’ adoption barriers and perceived strategies to address the barriers in Ghana. Results Findings indicated that students’ perception for sustainable agriculture is positive. Majority of the students (78.00%) were of the view that sustainable agricultural practices would help protect the environment and our natural resources, therefore could mitigate adverse effects of climate change on agricultural activities. Conclusions Students ranked perceived barriers to sustainable agriculture adoption as; economic costs, lack of knowledge and land tenure constraints. Strategic ways to address the barriers were identified as farmer-to-farmer education, provision of financial incentives, developing training and partnership programs, and participatory learning.


2021 ◽  
Vol 748 (1) ◽  
pp. 012039
Author(s):  
Tualar Simarmata ◽  
M Khais Proyoga ◽  
Diyan Herdiyantoro ◽  
Mieke R Setiawati ◽  
Kustiwa Adinata ◽  
...  

Abstract Climate change (CC) is real and threatens the livelihood of most smallholder farmers who reside along the coastal area. The CC causes the rise of temperature (0.2-0.3°C/decade) and sea level (SRL = 5 mm/year), drought and floods to occur more frequently, the change of rainfall intensity and pattern and shifting of planting season and leads to the decreasing of crop yield or yield loss. Most of the paddy soil has been exhausted and degraded. About 50% of the rice field along the coastline is effected by high salinity and causes significant yield losses. The research was aimed to summarize the results of the system of organic based aerobic rice intensification (known as IPATBO) and of two climate filed school (CFS) in Cinganjeng and Rawapu that situated along the coastline of Pangandaran and Cilacap. Both IPATBO and CFS have adopted the strategy of climate-resilient sustainable agriculture (CRSA) for restoring the soil health and increasing rice productivity, and as well as to empower the farmer community. The implementation of IPATBO (2010-2020) in the different areas has increased the soil health, fertilizers, and water efficiency (reduce inorganic by 25-50%, and water by 30-40%) and increased rice productivity by at least 25-50%. Both CFS in Ciganjeng and Rawaapu were able to improve soil fertility, increase rice productivity, and farmer capacity. This result concludes the agro-ecological based CRSA and CFS can be adopted for the increasing the resilient of agricultural practices and farmers in adapting to climate change


2021 ◽  
Vol 51 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
Uzair Ali ◽  
Wang Jing ◽  
Jialin Zhu ◽  
Zhibek Omarkhanova ◽  
Shah Fahad ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT: The current article looks at the effects of climate change on agriculture, especially crop production, and influence factors of agricultural development in terms of their rational use in Pakistan. Due to the dependence of economic development, and agriculture in the South Asian region on access to renewable national resources and the associated vulnerability to climate change, the limited financial and professional resources of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan require a clear definition of national priorities in this area. In the preparation of this article, general scientific cognition methods, in particular, empirical-theoretical methods were used. Grouping and classification methods have been used to process and systematize the data. The ability to change productivity, depending on the variation of the average annual air temperature and the average annual precipitation rate, was considered using a two-factor regression model. The main finding of the study is that temperature and precipitation have a negative impact on agricultural production. This study can provide a scientific justification for the specialization of agricultural production in the regions of Pakistan as well as the execution of the necessary agricultural activities.


Author(s):  
B. E. Fawole ◽  
S. A. Aderinoye-Abdulwahab

AbstractIn a bid to reinforce the efforts of agricultural professionals within the domain of climate change studies and with particular emphasis on rural farmers in Nigeria, this chapter explores the mechanics for adoption of climate smart agricultural practices among rural farmers for an increased agricultural productivity. Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) is paramount to the success of farming activities today in the face of the menace of the impact of climate change. Climate Smart Agricultural Practice (CSAP) is one of the major keys that agricultural development approaches aimed at; to sustainably increase productivity and resilience, while also reducing the effects; as well as removing emissions of greenhouse gases. It is pertinent to note that most of the CSAPs adopted by the rural farmers in this study are conservation agriculture, use of organic manure, crop diversification, use of wetland (Fadama), planting of drought tolerant crops, relocation from climate risk zones, prayers for God’s intervention, and improvement on farmers’ management skills. This study divulged and showcased the import of CSAP in boosting agricultural yield and also highlights the bottlenecks inhibiting agricultural farming practices such as lack of practical understanding of the approach, inadequate data and information, lack of suitable tools at local and national levels, supportive and enabling policy frameworks, and socioeconomic constraints at the farm level. The study concluded by recommending an aggressive awareness and mobilization campaign to boost the adoption of CSAPs in Nigeria.


Author(s):  
Apurbo Sarkar ◽  
Hongyu Wang ◽  
Airin Rahman ◽  
Jony Abdul Azim ◽  
Waqar Hussain Memon ◽  
...  

Abstract This paper aims to assess young farmers' willingness to adopt sustainable agriculture (SA) by implementing the expanded theory of planned behavior (TPB) within the northern region of Bangladesh. The outcomes attained specified that attitudes toward SA, perceived behavior control and perceived self-identity have progressive and fundamental impacts on adoption behavior and affect farmers' intentions to adopt SA's particular production mechanism. On the other hand, the social interface view toward SA is not significantly associated with the Bangladeshi farmer's adoption intention. The results also show that interconnections between social and familial pressure are not significant for sustainable farming practice adoption intentions. However, the interconnections among the psychosocial factors have a crucial role in formulating the TPB to forecast the intentional behavior for adopting SA practices. Thus, the government should highlight the advantages of several sustainable agricultural practices and circulate more detailed information regarding SA tactics to improve the knowledge gap of smallholder farmers. Furthermore, training facilities should be extended to improve the attitude and perceived self-identity of young farmers. Moreover, the formulation of structural information sharing platforms and agricultural value chain facilities should also help shape young farmers' interpersonal behavior in adopting SA practices.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (SI-1) ◽  
pp. 215-230
Author(s):  
Dr.Jeevan Kumar Cheruku ◽  
Vishal Katekar

Agriculture in India faces an unprecedented challenge. As a signatory to Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), India must end hunger by 2030. Achievement of this goal hinges on finding viable solutions to make farming a sustainable source of income generation by adopting sustainable agricultural practices. A survey of the literature reveals that digital technologies offer promising results to farmers globally. However, India lags in the adoption of digital technologies in agriculture. The paper identifies opportunities in promoting the development and adoption of digital agriculture technologies. It analyses policy interventions of the Government of India, such as Digital Agriculture and Precision Agriculture, to make the agriculture sector more sustainable in terms of economic, environmental, and societal perspectives. This research paper discusses barriers to their adoption and provides policy suggestions. It is an analytical paper based on a survey of literature that is secondary sources such as books, research articles, and policy documents, reports published by various government and non-government organizations, online databases, and discussion papers. Thematic analysis was used to identify sustainable agriculture dimensions and discover opportunities and challenges in using digital agriculture technologies.


Author(s):  
Amrit Patel

Climate change has been the most serious challenge affecting agriculture in India where direct effects of climate change are expected to be very harsh. India will need to produce estimated 320 MT of food grains by the year 2025. Acknowledging the significant role of Science & Technology, India has since 2008 established “National Action Plan on Climate Change” which includes “National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture [NMSA]” among eight missions. NMSA aims at developing technologies & innovative agricultural practices and strengthening the capacity of farming communities to cope effectively with both climatic variability and changes. Adaptation and mitigation potential is nowhere more pronounced than in India where agricultural productivity remains low and poverty, vulnerability & food insecurity remain high. Against this background this development perspective article attempts to highlight the impact of climate change on agriculture in general and in India in particular and suggests the priority areas to accelerate the process of effective implementation of NMSA launched on June 26, 2015.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Suleyman Abdureman Omer ◽  
Nuradin Abdi Hassen

Climate variability and change has caused instability in production and decline in productivity exacerbating food insecurity particularly in Latin America, Africa including Ethiopia and some parts of Asia. The magnitude and frequency of extreme climatic events are projected to increase. The effects of these climatic changes will become even more pronounced among small scale farmers whose farming activities are weather dependent and vulnerable to climate change, and already affected by environmental degradation and socio-economic risks. Effective adaptation to climate change among small scale farmers is therefore of critical importance and is dependent on the adoption of climate-smart practices. However, studies have shown low adoption of climate-smart farming practices among small scale farmers world over, in East Hararghe Zone and Kurfa Chele District. This study, therefore, examined factors influencing adoption of climate-smart practices among farmers Kurfa Chele District, East Hararghe Zone, evaluated their existing knowledge, attitude and practice of these practices, assessed their perception of climate change, examined the extent of climate information dissemination, and the resultant impact on the uptake of these practices. The research adopted a survey research design, where both quantitative and qualitative research strategies were used. Data was gathered through Focus Group Discussions, questionnaires, key informant interviews, observations and a desk review. Both simple random and purposive sampling was used to sample 420 small scale farmers and technical officers of the agriculture sector respectively. Data were analysed using both quantitative and qualitative techniques. To test the statistical significance of the findings and relationships between the variables, the chi-square test was used


Author(s):  
Fatawu Abubakar Sadique ◽  
Leslie Danquah ◽  
Nana Yeboaa Opuni-Frimpong

This study assessed stakeholders’ perception on the prospects and challenges of practising Climate–Smart Agroforestry in the Asunafo North Municipal Assembly in the Ahafo Region in Ghana. Interviewer administered questionnaires were used to collect cross-sectional data from 250 cocoa, food and cash crop farmers drawn from four (4) communities using simple random sampling. And nine (9) in-depth interviews were also conducted to elicit key stakeholder perspectives. Stakeholders also held the view that Climate-Smart Agroforestry encourages the use of stress-tolerant crop varieties, increase income, improve soil productivity, diversify farm produce, urges the reduction of input supply and recommends the timely usage of the inputs, ensures better market system for farm produce, cost of production decreases during the practice of Agroforestry, agro-ecological functions and Climate-Smart Agroforestry can best help adapt to the threats of climate change in the agriculture sector. The challenges included insecure tree ownership right, fast-declining soil fertility and long maturity period of Agroforestry trees, land tenure issues, illegal tree logging (chainsaw operators) on farms, lack of practical understanding of the approach, inadequate knowledge and information and inadequate supportive facilities in the study area. The study recommends further studies on the existing forest policy and legislations and its implications on the practice and adoption of Climate-Smart Agroforestry in respond to climate change in the area.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 46-57
Author(s):  
Nicolae Suvorov ◽  
Alina Mădălina Stancu

The 21st century comes with a great challenge in terms of sustainable agriculture and food security, which is also a worldwide debated issue due to problems such as population growth, degradation of natural resources including loss of biodiversity and considerable soil degradation, and last but not least, climate change. In fact, climate change poses the greatest threat to agricultural systems and the health of ecosystems and natural balance. The green revolution comes as a lifesaver for the environment, streamlining the allocation of natural resources but at the same time involves huge costs in term of money, time, and labor. Due to the intensive use of fossil fuels, chemical treatments in agriculture, and animal husbandry, environmental problems such as climate change tend to become more pronounced resulting in negative environmental externalities globally. A smart approach to sustainable agriculture is to reinvent and innovate traditional agricultural practices in order to identify ways and possibilities to reduce the risks related to the use of pesticides in close connection with the health of ecosystems.


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