Comparing Farmers’ Perception of Climate Change and Adaptation Strategies in the Transition and Savannah Zones of Ghana

Abstract

The perceptions of agrarian communities about climate change; and its effect on their livelihoods in the face of multiple socioeconomic stressors has been widely studied. Using lenses like gender and intersectionality, and feminist political ecology, it has become apparent that several social locations intersect to shape peoples’ vulnerability and adaptive capacity to climate change. In the face of limited resources, priority areas for building adaptive capacity must be identified. By comparing the ranking of livelihood challenges of communities in the transition zone (where rainfall has been relatively favourable in the past) and the savannah zone (where arid conditions have shaped the very culture of the people) of Ghana, this study reveals that, the historical climatic conditions of a place is a relevant determinant of the importance people attach to climate change, their vulnerability, and their capacity to adapt to it. Areas that have been historically arid have relatively less concern but superior adaptive capacity for climate change while communities that are used to relatively more precipitation have more concern but inadequate adaptive capacity for climate change. It is proposed that this phenomenon is appealed to in prioritizing where limited resources to boost adaptive capacity are directed. The paper highlights the importance of using extension workers to break adaptation knowledge transfer barriers, and also the importance of including possible adaptation techniques when building models that predict the effects of climate change on the growth of crops.