Africa is amongst the most susceptible regions to climate change and this situation is intensified by the interaction of ‘multiple stresses’ and the low adaptive capacity of smallholder households. Agricultural production and livelihood security in many African countries are severely weakened by climate change. The paper seeks to contribute to the growing empirical and policy discourse on climate change by examining smallholder households’ views and understanding of climate change. The research combined qualitative methods (FGD’s, historical timelines and interviews) with a quantitative method (survey) and analyzed the data using descriptive and inferential statistics such as percentages, trend analysis and bivariate correlations to investigate the relationships and differences of the variables. The results indicate that smallholder households believe that the rainfall pattern of the Bongo district is characterized by erratic rainfall, reduced rainfall, late onset, short duration and high temperature which have resulted in significant crop failure. The results further show that smallholder households associate climate change to bush burning, deforestation {hegemonic representation} whiles others associate climate change to breaking of taboos and the disrespect for the beliefs, spirits, gods (life forces) {polemic representation}. Over 95% of household believe climate change poses severe negative consequences for their farming activities and livelihoods {emancipated representation}. These perceptions by smallholder households were corroborated by rainfall and temperature records from the Ghana Meteorological Agency in the Bongo district. Livelihood diversification strategies, including off-farm income sources should be robustly pursued and more specific and targeted climate adaptation policies needs to be formulated by policy makers to reduce the vulnerabilities of smallholder households whose livelihoods depend largely on rain-fed agriculture.
| Published in | Earth Sciences (Volume 5, Issue 2) |
| DOI | 10.11648/j.earth.20160502.12 |
| Page(s) | 26-38 |
| Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Copyright |
Copyright © The Author(s), 2016. Published by Science Publishing Group |
Climate Change, Smallholder Households, Perceptions, Social Representations, Bongo District, Ghana
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APA Style
Philip Aniah, Millar Katherine Kaunza-Nu-Dem, Bernard Awinbugri Abindaw, David Millar. (2016). Characterizing and Explaining Smallholder Households’ Views and Understanding of Climate Change in the Bongo District of Ghana. Earth Sciences, 5(2), 26-38. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.earth.20160502.12
ACS Style
Philip Aniah; Millar Katherine Kaunza-Nu-Dem; Bernard Awinbugri Abindaw; David Millar. Characterizing and Explaining Smallholder Households’ Views and Understanding of Climate Change in the Bongo District of Ghana. Earth Sci. 2016, 5(2), 26-38. doi: 10.11648/j.earth.20160502.12
AMA Style
Philip Aniah, Millar Katherine Kaunza-Nu-Dem, Bernard Awinbugri Abindaw, David Millar. Characterizing and Explaining Smallholder Households’ Views and Understanding of Climate Change in the Bongo District of Ghana. Earth Sci. 2016;5(2):26-38. doi: 10.11648/j.earth.20160502.12
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Download@article{10.11648/j.earth.20160502.12,
author = {Philip Aniah and Millar Katherine Kaunza-Nu-Dem and Bernard Awinbugri Abindaw and David Millar},
title = {Characterizing and Explaining Smallholder Households’ Views and Understanding of Climate Change in the Bongo District of Ghana},
journal = {Earth Sciences},
volume = {5},
number = {2},
pages = {26-38},
doi = {10.11648/j.earth.20160502.12},
url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.earth.20160502.12},
eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.earth.20160502.12},
abstract = {Africa is amongst the most susceptible regions to climate change and this situation is intensified by the interaction of ‘multiple stresses’ and the low adaptive capacity of smallholder households. Agricultural production and livelihood security in many African countries are severely weakened by climate change. The paper seeks to contribute to the growing empirical and policy discourse on climate change by examining smallholder households’ views and understanding of climate change. The research combined qualitative methods (FGD’s, historical timelines and interviews) with a quantitative method (survey) and analyzed the data using descriptive and inferential statistics such as percentages, trend analysis and bivariate correlations to investigate the relationships and differences of the variables. The results indicate that smallholder households believe that the rainfall pattern of the Bongo district is characterized by erratic rainfall, reduced rainfall, late onset, short duration and high temperature which have resulted in significant crop failure. The results further show that smallholder households associate climate change to bush burning, deforestation {hegemonic representation} whiles others associate climate change to breaking of taboos and the disrespect for the beliefs, spirits, gods (life forces) {polemic representation}. Over 95% of household believe climate change poses severe negative consequences for their farming activities and livelihoods {emancipated representation}. These perceptions by smallholder households were corroborated by rainfall and temperature records from the Ghana Meteorological Agency in the Bongo district. Livelihood diversification strategies, including off-farm income sources should be robustly pursued and more specific and targeted climate adaptation policies needs to be formulated by policy makers to reduce the vulnerabilities of smallholder households whose livelihoods depend largely on rain-fed agriculture.},
year = {2016}
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Characterizing and Explaining Smallholder Households’ Views and Understanding of Climate Change in the Bongo District of Ghana
AU - Philip Aniah
AU - Millar Katherine Kaunza-Nu-Dem
AU - Bernard Awinbugri Abindaw
AU - David Millar
Y1 - 2016/05/04
PY - 2016
N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.earth.20160502.12
DO - 10.11648/j.earth.20160502.12
T2 - Earth Sciences
JF - Earth Sciences
JO - Earth Sciences
SP - 26
EP - 38
PB - Science Publishing Group
SN - 2328-5982
UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.earth.20160502.12
AB - Africa is amongst the most susceptible regions to climate change and this situation is intensified by the interaction of ‘multiple stresses’ and the low adaptive capacity of smallholder households. Agricultural production and livelihood security in many African countries are severely weakened by climate change. The paper seeks to contribute to the growing empirical and policy discourse on climate change by examining smallholder households’ views and understanding of climate change. The research combined qualitative methods (FGD’s, historical timelines and interviews) with a quantitative method (survey) and analyzed the data using descriptive and inferential statistics such as percentages, trend analysis and bivariate correlations to investigate the relationships and differences of the variables. The results indicate that smallholder households believe that the rainfall pattern of the Bongo district is characterized by erratic rainfall, reduced rainfall, late onset, short duration and high temperature which have resulted in significant crop failure. The results further show that smallholder households associate climate change to bush burning, deforestation {hegemonic representation} whiles others associate climate change to breaking of taboos and the disrespect for the beliefs, spirits, gods (life forces) {polemic representation}. Over 95% of household believe climate change poses severe negative consequences for their farming activities and livelihoods {emancipated representation}. These perceptions by smallholder households were corroborated by rainfall and temperature records from the Ghana Meteorological Agency in the Bongo district. Livelihood diversification strategies, including off-farm income sources should be robustly pursued and more specific and targeted climate adaptation policies needs to be formulated by policy makers to reduce the vulnerabilities of smallholder households whose livelihoods depend largely on rain-fed agriculture.
VL - 5
IS - 2
ER -
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