Climate Smart Agriculture Practices in Semi-arid Northern Ghana: Implications for Sustainable Livelihoods

Achieving food security and livelihood development among vulnerable households in the semi-arid regions is challenged by water scarcity and climate change. To alleviate the challenges of water scarcity and climate change impacts, farmers are adopting different climate smart agriculture (CSA) practices. However, there is limited knowledge on the contribution of CSA practices to livelihoods of farmers in semi-arid northern Ghana. Therefore, this paper explored CSA practices adopted by smallholder farmers and assessed the contribution of dry season farming to livelihoods in rural semi-arid Ghana. Using data from 100 households, farm income, household food security and subjective wellbeing (SWB) were compared between dry season farmers and non-dry season ones. The findings showed that socio-economic factors hindered the utilisation of practices with high start-up cost such as rain water harvesting. Farmers also adopted other practices based on the benefits, ease of use and geographical context. Comparing dry season farmers and non-dry season ones, the results showed that dry season farming had great potentials of improving income, food security (66%) and wellbeing (P>0.01) of rural households in semi-arid Ghana. However, adopting CSA practices only without instituting programmes to address other socio-economic challenges faced by smallholder farmers will yield minimal impacts. Complementing CSA initiatives with poverty alleviation programmes will effectively contribute to improved livelihoods in resource poor communities.

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Assessing the Potential Contribution of Pfumvudza Towards Climate Smart Agriculture in Zimbabwe: A Review

10.20944/preprints202101.0619.v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Never Mujere

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Nitrous Oxide ◽

Food Security ◽

Nitrous Oxide Emissions ◽

Household Food Security ◽

Potential Contribution ◽

Mitigation And Adaptation ◽

Household Food ◽

Smart Agriculture ◽

The Impact

Concerns of food and environmental security have increased enormously in recent years due to the vagaries of climate change and variability. Efforts to promote food security and environmental sustainability often reinforce each other and enable farmers to adapt to and mitigate the impact of climate change and other stresses. Some of these efforts are based on appropriate technologies and practices that restore natural ecosystems and improve the resilience of farming systems, thus enhancing food security. Climate smart agriculture (CSA) principles, for example, translate into a number of locally-devised and applied practices that work simultaneously through contextualised crop-soil-water-nutrient-pest-ecosystem management at a variety of scales. The purpose of this paper is to review concisely the current state-of-the-art literature and ascertain the potential of the Pfumvudza concept to enhance household food security, climate change mitigation and adaptation as it is promoted in Zimbabwe. The study relied heavily on data from print and electronic media. Datasets pertaining to carbon, nitrous oxide and methane storage in soils and crop yield under zero tillage and conventional tillage were compiled. Findings show that, compared to conventional farming, Pfumvudza has great potential to contribute towards household food security and reducing carbon emissions if implemented following the stipulated recommendations. These include among others, adequate land preparation and timely planting and acquiring inputs. However, nitrous oxide emissions tend to increase with reduced tillage and, the use of artificial fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides is environmentally unfriendly.

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Can Organic Agriculture Feed the Smallholders? Experience from Rural Bangladesh

Asia-Pacific Journal of Rural Development ◽

10.1177/24551333211036938 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 31 (1) ◽

pp. 91-107

Author(s):

M. A. Sarker ◽

M. Hoque ◽

A. H. Chowdhury ◽

Z. Ferdous

Keyword(s):

Food Security ◽

Organic Agriculture ◽

Smallholder Farmers ◽

Farm Size ◽

Household Food Security ◽

Farm Income ◽

Base Line ◽

Project Staff ◽

Household Food ◽

Safe Food

This study empirically tests the benefit of the smallholders from organic farming in Bangladesh through their improved food security which is realised from their increased productivity and farm income. The respondent smallholders were picked up from two districts of Bangladesh namely Mymensingh and Bogra. The respondents (80) were the beneficiaries of the organic agriculture promotion project of Bangladesh Agricultural University. Three years data were collected by the project staff and were crosschecked with the base line. Findings of the study explored that before joining with the project extreme majority (93%) of the small farmers were involved in rice mono-culture and more than half (67%) of them were food deficit. The study also revealed that at the initial year of joining organic agriculture project their farm productivity was 10–12% lesser and it increased continually in the successive years. In some cases, it crossed the yield compared to conventional farming. The findings of the study showed that 100% of the farmers have followed crop diversification with high value vegetables and spices along with rice. Due to adoption of organic practices, the cost of production of the smallholders has declined from 27% to 36% and additionally they enjoy 10% to 15% premium prices which have enhanced their farm income significantly. The study shows that 62.5% of the smallholder farmers had attained household food security due to adoption of organic agriculture. Thus, adoption of organic agriculture effectively increased smallholders’ access to surplus safe food. However, the study also explored that farm size, extension media contact, access to assured market and access to institutional support are the most important factors in improving smallholders’ household food security through participation in organic agriculture programme. Thus, it can be concluded that organic agriculture can feed the smallholders in a better way.

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Using climate analogue tools to explore and build smallholder farmer capacity for climate smart agriculture

AAS Open Research ◽

10.12688/aasopenres.12822.1 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 1 ◽

pp. 24

Author(s):

Phyllis Opare ◽

Johnson O. Akintonde ◽

Daniel Obeng-Ofori ◽

Valerie Nelson

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Food Security ◽

Weather Forecasting ◽

Food Sovereignty ◽

Smallholder Farmers ◽

Rainfall Variability ◽

Transformative Change ◽

Social Infrastructure ◽

Mitigation And Adaptation ◽

Smart Agriculture

Background: The phenomenon of climate change (CC) and its attendant challenges in agriculture have been widely document. Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) focuses on sustainable agriculture intensification for food sovereignty through the adoption of mitigation and adaptation practices. Agriculture provides the livelihood for 70% of rural poor in the developing world, so building farmer capacity in CSA is imperative for food security. Studies show that transformative change must be bottom-up – integrating scientific and ethical dimensions, using participatory research approaches that employ simple comprehensive tools for building participants’ capacity to adapt. Methods: The study uses the “Climate Change Agriculture and Food Security” (CCAFS) climate analogue and weather forecasting tools. These participatory learning tools allow participants to interrogate and explore their own geographical and climatic histories and to draw conclusions on climate variability. This study examined smallholder farmers’ understanding of CC and their resilience to it. The study consisted of 5 stages – selection of tools, planning and training of teams, meetings with community leaders and community members to select participants, focus group discussions, modelling sessions and community dissemination meetings. Results: Participants showed awareness of CC, explained in terms of rainfall variability, decreasing rainforest, increasing temperature and excessively long hot days. Farmers illustrated gendered perception of past and present landscapes, time use, past seasonal trends, vulnerabilities and access to key resources. They also observed that natural resources were declining, while population and social infrastructure increased. Participants modelled the shift in seasons and projected possible future scenarios. Finally, participants were willing to adopt climate smart agronomic practices. Conclusions: After establishing that farmers are aware of CC, follow-on-studies addressing the impediments to adaptation and provision of necessary tools and resources to facilitate adaptation must be carried out. This study can also be replicated among a larger smallholder population for increased capacity to practice CSA.

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Impact of Farm Households’ Adaptations to Climate Change on Food Security: Evidence from Different Agro-ecologies of Pakistan

The Pakistan Development Review ◽

10.30541/v55i4i-iipp.561-588 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 55 (4I-II) ◽

pp. 561-588 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Munir Ahmad Gattoo ◽

Ghulam Mustafa ◽

Muhammad Iqbal

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Food Security ◽

Treatment Effects ◽

New Technologies ◽

Cropping Systems ◽

Farm Households ◽

Household Food Security ◽

Farm Income ◽

Household Food ◽

The Impact

The study used data from 3298 food crop growers in Pakistan. Potential outcome treatment effects model was applied to evaluate the impact of adaptations on household food security. A household Food Security Index (FSI) was constructed applying Principle Component Analysis (PCA). Adaptation strategies employed by the farmers in response to climate change were categorised into four groups namely: changes in sowing time (C1); input intensification (C2); water and soil conservation (C3); and changes in varieties (C4). Out of 15 mutually exclusive combinations constructed for evaluation, only 7 combinations were considered for estimating the treatment effects models because of limited number of observations in other cases. Results of only two of the 7 are discussed in the paper, as the other 5 had very small number of adapters and the impact measures shown either insignificant results or had opposite signs. The first (C1234) combined all the four, while the second (C234) combined the last three strategies. The results suggest that the households which adapted to climate changes were statistically significantly more food secure as compared to those who did not adapt. The results further show that education of the male and female heads, livestock ownership, the structure of house—both bricked and having electricity facility, crops diversification, and non-farm income are among the factors, which raise the food security of farm households and their impacts are statistically significant. The variables which are significantly negatively associated with the food security levels include age of the head of household, food expenditure management, households having less than 12.5 acres of land— defined as marginal (cultivate 6.25 to 12.5 acres). Farmers of cotton-wheat, rice-wheat, and rain-fed cropping systems are found to be more food secure as compared to the farmers working in the mixed cropping systems where farm holdings are relatively small and high use of tube-well water adding to salinity of soils. It is crucial to invest in the development of agricultural technological packages, addressing issues of climate change relevant to different ecologies and farming systems; improve research-extension-farmer linkages; enhance farmers‘ access to new technologies; improve rural infrastructure; development of weather information system linking meteorological department, extension and farmers; and establishment of targeted food safety nets as well as farm subsidy programs for marginal farm households.

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Determinants of Crop Diversification and Its Effects on Household Food Security in Northern Ghana

Arthaniti-Journal of Economic Theory and Practice ◽

10.1177/0976747920936818 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 097674792093681

Author(s):

Abdul Razak Baba ◽

Abdul-Malik Abdulai

Keyword(s):

Food Security ◽

Process Model ◽

Smallholder Farmers ◽

Farm Size ◽

Northern Ghana ◽

Household Food Security ◽

Crop Diversification ◽

Household Food ◽

Food Security Status ◽

Northern Regions

This study analyses factors that determine smallholder farmers’ crop diversification decisions and their effects on household food security in Northern Ghana. A total of 1,284 households were sampled across the five northern regions of Ghana. Herfindahl Index for measuring crop diversification was used. The study found average crop diversity to be 0.55 and about 61 per cent of the sampled farmers had values above the average which indicated high crop diversification in the study area. The study also estimated the determinants of crop diversification and their effects on household dietary food security using the conditional mixed process model. Upon examining the determinants of crop diversification, occupation, technology adoption, labour, extension contact and farm size were identified as significant determinants. The study also computed the Household Food Consumption Score as a proxy for measuring food security. The result indicated that crop diversification contributes significantly to improving household food security status in Northern Ghana.

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Does microcredit use helps farmers win battle against food insecurity: evidence from Jimma zone of Southwest Ethiopia

Agriculture & Food Security ◽

10.1186/s40066-021-00323-8 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Amanuel Berhanu ◽

Abayineh Amare ◽

Birki Gurmessa ◽

Yadeta Bekele ◽

Tamiru Chalchisa

Keyword(s):

Food Security ◽

Propensity Score ◽

Propensity Score Matching ◽

Smallholder Farmers ◽

Labour Force ◽

Household Food Security ◽

Farm Income ◽

Household Food ◽

Jimma Zone ◽

The Impact

Abstract Background Lack of access to credit precludes smallholder farmers from making investment that generates greater level of income, consumption and wealth. To reverse this limit, Oromia Credit and Saving Share Company has been providing microcredit for rural households for the last two decades in the study area. Yet, there is limited knowledge on the impact of this microcredit service on rural household food security in Jimma zone. Therefore, this research aims at generating location-specific data on the impact of microcredit utilization on household food security in the study area. A multistage sampling procedure was employed to select 360 sample households. Data were generated through household survey, focus group discussion and key informant interview. Both descriptive and econometric data analysis techniques (binary logit model and Propensity score matching) were used. Results The results reveal that educational level, family size; land size and non/off-farm income of the households influenced microcredit utilization positively, whereas livestock ownership and farm income negatively influenced it. The analysis of food security status indicate that large proportion of households are food secure. The Propensity score matching result expose that microcredit utilization has generated a positive and significant impact on household food security. Conclusions Efforts towards scaling out services of microcredit institutions should target improving financial literacy of the rural poor and their current financial need on the basis of other resources such as land and livestock they owned with the ultimate goal of ensuring household food security. It is also imperative to realize the labour force capacity of the households in the process of expanding credit service.

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Impacts of Cash Crop Production on Household Food Security for Smallholder Farmers: A Case of Shamva District, Zimbabwe

Agriculture ◽

10.3390/agriculture10050188 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (5) ◽

pp. 188

Author(s):

Theresa Tendai Rubhara ◽

Maxwell Mudhara ◽

Oluwaseun Samuel Oduniyi ◽

Michael Akwasi Antwi

Keyword(s):

Food Security ◽

Crop Production ◽

Smallholder Farmers ◽

Household Food Security ◽

Farm Income ◽

Tobit Regression ◽

Cash Crop ◽

Cash Cropping ◽

Cash Crops ◽

Household Food

Zimbabwe has recently experienced a considerable shift towards the production of more cash crops, such as tobacco, at the expense of food crops. Although cash cropping has been associated with increased income, the question is whether the income gained from cash crops would be enough to provide the food needs of farming households. This research was conducted to analyse the impact of cash crops on household food security. A cross-sectional survey consisting of 281 randomly selected smallholder farmers in Shamva District was used for primary data collection. Data were analysed using the Tobit regression model and Propensity score matching (PSM). The household dietary diversity score (HDDS) was used to measure food security. The PSM results showed a positive impact of cash crop production on the HDDS. This could be attributed to the income effect of cash cropping. Furthermore, Tobit regression results showed that cash crop production (p < 0.1), non-farm income (p < 0.01), total arable land (p < 0.05) and access to draft power (p < 0.05) positively influenced household food security. Household size negatively impacted food security (p < 0.05). While the results from this study suggest the need to promote cash crop production, it should not be regarded as the panacea for addressing food insecurity. There is a need for further research to derive optimum combinations of cash and food crops in the crop mixture for smallholder farmers to achieve food security. Furthermore, opportunities for off-farm livelihood options should be developed, since non-farm income had a positive effect on food security.

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Climate change in semi-arid Malawi: Perceptions, adaptation strategies and water governance

Jàmbá Journal of Disaster Risk Studies ◽

10.4102/jamba.v8i3.255 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 8 (3) ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Miriam K. Joshua ◽

Cosmo Ngongondo ◽

Fellistus Chipungu ◽

Maurice Monjerezi ◽

Emma Liwenga ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Food Security ◽

Water Resources ◽

Adaptation Strategies ◽

Household Food Security ◽

Irrigated Agriculture ◽

Strong Basis ◽

Climate Change And Variability ◽

Semi Arid ◽

People’S Perceptions

Climate change and variability are a threat to sustainable agricultural production in semi-arid areas of Malawi. Overdependence on subsistence rain-fed agriculture in these areas calls for the identification of sustainable adaptation strategies. A study was therefore conducted in Chikwawa, a semi-arid district in southern Malawi, to: (1) assess community’s perception of a changing climate against empirical evidence, (2) determine their local adaptive measures, (3) evaluate the potential of irrigated agriculture as an adaptive measure in household food security and (4) challenges over access to available water resources. The study employed focus group discussions and key informant interviews to assess people’s perceptions of climate change and variability and their desired interventions. To validate the people’s perceptions, rainfall and temperature data for the period 1960–2010 were analysed. A participatory complete randomised experimental design in both rain-fed and dry season–irrigated conditions was conducted to assess a maize cropping system that would improve adaptation. The study established persistent declining yields from rain-fed production in part because of perennial rainfall failure. In response, the community has shifted its focus to irrigation as an adaptation strategy, which has in turn triggered water conflicts in the community over the control of the resource. Water legislation however fails to adequately provide for rules governing sharing of water resources between various stakeholders. This article therefore recommends development of an appropriate institutional framework that forms a strong basis for equitable distribution of water for irrigation in areas most vulnerable to extreme climate events – including droughts and floods.Keywords: Food Security; Climate Change and Variability; Rainfall Variability; Irrigation; Water Resources; Governance Crisis

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Climate change stressors affecting household food security among Kimandi-Wanyaga smallholder farmers in Murang’a County, Kenya

Open Agriculture ◽

10.1515/opag-2021-0042 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 6 (1) ◽

pp. 587-608

Author(s):

Mary W. Ngure ◽

Shem O. Wandiga ◽

Daniel O. Olago ◽

Silas O. Oriaso

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Food Security ◽

Climate Adaptation ◽

Smallholder Farmers ◽

Rainfall Variability ◽

Crop Productivity ◽

Maximum Temperature ◽

Household Food Security ◽

Community Perceptions ◽

Household Food

Abstract Climate change hazards including droughts and floods are adversely affecting crop productivity and food security among Kenyan smallholder farmers. This article analyzes rainfall and temperature change effects on household food security in Kimandi-Wanyaga, in Murang’a County, Kenya. Both the meteorological and the community perceptions were analyzed. Monthly rainfall and temperature data for Thika Meteorological Station were analyzed for trends using MAKESENS procedure. The community perceptions data obtained through household survey, key informant interviews, and focus group discussions were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and content analysis. The study hypotheses were tested using chi-square tests. The community perceived inadequate rainfall during crop growth (79%), reduced rainfall intensity (77%) and erratic onset and cessation of seasonal rainfall (73%) had interrupted their crop productivity. These disagreed with MAKESENS rainfall trends that showed statistically insignificant rainfall variability (α > 0.1). The community’s warmer temperature perceptions agreed with observed rising maximum temperature trend at 0.001 significance level. This study observed a significant relationship between the community’s perceived local rainfall and temperature changes, and household food security. For robust and strategically designed climate policies and programs for food security, governments need to communicate to policy makers the perceptions of smallholder farmers involved in autonomous climate adaptation.

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