Motivations, enablers and barriers to the adoption of climate- smart agricultural practices by smallholder farmers: Evidence from the transitional and savannah agroecological zones of Ghana

doi:10.1016/j.regsus.2022.01.005

Abstract

Abstract:

This paper examined the prioritized climate-smart agricultural practices by smallholder farmers, the motivations of adopting climate-smart agricultural practices, the enablers to the successful adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices, and the barriers to the successful adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices in the transitional and savannah agroecological zones of Ghana. Specifically, we employed ethnographic research using participatory approaches, including two stakeholder workshops and household surveys with 1061 households in the transitional and savannah agroecological zones of Ghana. The weighted average index (WAI) and problem confrontation index (PCI) were used to rank smallholder farmers’ perceived enablers to the adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices and the barriers affecting climate-smart agricultural practices, respectively. Results suggest that the majority of the respondents used a suite of climate-smart agricultural practices, including the timely harvesting of produce and storage, emergency seed banking, appropriate and timely weed and pest control, and early planting as practices to build climate resilience. The majority of smallholder farmers primarily employed climate-smart agricultural practices to improve household food security (96.2%), reduce pests and diseases (95.6%), and obtain higher yields and greater farm income (93.2%). Findings also show that secured land tenure system arrangement, understanding the effects of climate change, and access to sustainable agricultural technologies were ranked the first, second, and third most important enablers to the adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices with the WAI values of 2.86, 2.75, and 2.70, respectively. Key barriers to the successful adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices included incidences of pests and diseases (PCI=2530), inadequate access to agricultural credit (PCI=2502), high cost of improved crop varieties (PCI=2334), and limited government support with farm inputs (PCI=2296). Smallholder farmers need to be better supported through the provision of appropriate institutional and policy arrangements together with improved land management extension advice to overcome these barriers and facilitate the more effective implementation of climate-smart agricultural practices in Ghana.

Key words: Climate-smart agriculture, Smallholder farmers, Food security, Climate change, Weighted average index, Problem confrontation index, Ghana

Philip ANTWI-AGYEI, Emmanuel Mawuli ABALO, Andrew John DOUGILL, Frank BAFFOUR-ATA. Motivations, enablers and barriers to the adoption of climate- smart agricultural practices by smallholder farmers: Evidence from the transitional and savannah agroecological zones of Ghana[J]. Regional Sustainability, 2021, 2(4): 375-386.

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Item	Kintampo South District	Savelugu Municipality	Lambussie-Karni District
Agro-ecological zone	Wet semi-equatorial climate	Savannah ecological zone	Tropical continental climatic zone
Average temperature (°C)	24-30	16-42	28-31
Annual rainfall (mm)	1400-1800	600-1000	900-1100
Relative humidity (%)	65	50	47
Major cropping season	March-June	May-October	May-September
Minor cropping season	August-November	Not applicable	Not applicable
Main crops	Yam, cassava, cocoyam, rice, plantain, ground nut, cowpea, and other tree crops such as cashew and mango	Maize, rice, cowpea, groundnut, sorghum, soyabean, millet, and cassava	Maize, rice, sorghum, millet, yam groundnut, and cowpea
Main livelihood activity	Agriculture (crop farming)	Agriculture (crop farming)	Agriculture (crop farming)

Item	Kintampo South District (N=395; 37.2%)			Savelugu Municipality (N=351; 33.1%)			Lambussie-Karni District (N=315; 29.7%)
Item	Apesika	Suamire	Ayorya	Diare	Kukobila	Nkapandzoo	Karni	Kpare	Samoa
Total households^a	775	-	279	1129	-	-	477	144	325
Sampled households	166 (42.0%)	111 (28.1%)	118 (29.9%)	211 (60.1%)	75 (21.4%)	65 (18.5%)	89 (28.2%)	109 (34.6%)	117 (37.1%)
Types of farmers	PS	PS	PS	PS	PS	PS	PS	PS	PS

Climate-smart agricultural practice	Number of smallholder farmers adopting these practices (n=1061)				RII	Rank
Climate-smart agricultural practice	Never used (W=1)	Rarely used (W=2)	Often used (W=3)	Used every year (W=4)	RII	Rank
Timely harvesting of produce and storage	42	145	564	309	0.77	1
Emergency seed banking	77	190	398	395	0.76	2
Crop rotation	97	141	468	354	0.75	3
Appropriate and timely weed and pest control	48	229	473	310	0.75	3
Early planting	81	209	537	233	0.72	4
Appropriate fertilizer use	91	228	476	265	0.72	4
Appropriate planting methods and spacing	73	238	560	189	0.71	5
Planting early maturing varieties of crops	186	200	496	178	0.66	6
Mixed cropping	208	195	454	203	0.66	6
Planting legumes among crops	240	230	390	200	0.63	7
Use of indigenous or traditional agro-ecological knowledge	231	245	451	133	0.62	8
Cover cropping	268	241	388	163	0.61	9
Appropriate land preparation, with no slash and burn	198	367	355	140	0.61	9
Bush fallowing	293	239	359	169	0.60	10
No burning of residues or biomass on farms	248	372	308	132	0.58	11
Crop diversification	236	377	351	96	0.58	11
Crop residue mulching	357	243	279	181	0.57	12
Zero tillage/minimum tillage	345	241	325	149	0.57	12
Using drought tolerant crop varieties	298	309	351	102	0.57	12
Conservation agriculture	244	388	372	56	0.56	13
Use of pest resistant plant varieties	320	323	287	130	0.56	13
Use of climate information services	241	395	390	34	0.56	13
Water management and water harvesting	385	207	379	89	0.55	14
Mixed farming	505	212	285	58	0.48	15
Agroforestry and woodlot schemes	681	234	128	17	0.38	16
Composting	691	258	88	23	0.37	17
Earth bunding	785	201	64	10	0.34	18
Crop insurance schemes	810	206	33	11	0.33	19
Sprinkler and drip irrigation	870	120	49	21	0.32	20
Tillage by bullock	906	92	35	27	0.31	21
Stone bunding	943	97	18	2	0.29	22

Motivation	N		Mean	SD	Var.	P-value	χ²
Motivation	Yes	No	Mean	SD	Var.	P-value	χ²
Household food security improvement	1020 (96.2%)	40 (3.8%)	0.960	0.191	0.036	0.091	2.86
Reducing pests and diseases	1013 (95.6%)	47 (4.4%)	0.960	0.206	0.042	0.790	0.07
Increasing yields and farm income	988 (93.2%)	72 (6.8%)	0.930	0.252	0.063	0.952	0.00
Controlling erosion and protecting soil	948 (89.4%)	112 (10.6%)	0.890	0.308	0.095	0.690	0.16
Avoiding the effect of droughts on farming	918 (86.6%)	142 (13.4%)	0.870	0.341	0.116	0.673	0.18
Maintaining soil moisture	916 (86.4%)	144 (13.6%)	0.860	0.343	0.118	0.779	0.08
Avoiding the effect of high temperature on farming	901 (85.0%)	159 (15.0%)	0.850	0.357	0.128	0.387	0.75

Enabler	Number of respondents reporting enablers					WAI	Rank
Enabler	Very low level	Low level	Moderate level	High level	Very high level	WAI	Rank
Secured land tenure system arrangement	178	271	262	223	126	2.86	1
Understanding the effects of climate change	153	264	406	171	66	2.75	2
Access to sustainable agricultural technologies	150	297	392	165	56	2.70	3
Access to financial resources to implement climate-smart agriculture practices	338	259	113	132	185	2.68	4
Access to weather and climate information	236	255	320	193	56	2.60	5
Support from social group organizations	428	323	150	116	43	2.08	6
Support from local government authorities	475	277	129	106	73	2.08	6
Support from traditional leaders	471	288	123	113	65	2.07	8
Access to farmer-based insurance	635	174	101	101	49	1.83	9