Perceptions of Rain-Fed Lowland Rice Farmers on Climate Change, Their Vulnerability, and Adaptation Strategies in the Volta Region of Ghana

Abstract

Climate change is already impacting negatively on Africa through extreme temperatures, frequent flooding and droughts, and increased salinity of water supplies used for irrigation (IPCC 2007). Widespread poverty and high dependence on rain-fed agriculture in Africa renders the continent more vulnerable to climate change–induced disasters than other regions of the world. Sub-Saharan African countries form the bulk of countries in a protracted food crisis (FAO 2010). The recent waves of food crisis in West Africa attest to this (Oxfam 2010). Therefore, urgent measures need to be undertaken to improve the resilience of African communities, especially those in rural areas, to enable them to better adapt to climate change and other constraints to food production. In the next decades, world food demand is projected to increase as it is currently being rapidly redefined by new driving forces (von Braun 2007). Income growth, climate change, high energy prices, globalization, and urbanization are transforming food production, consumption, and markets. Economic growth (especially in some Asian countries) has helped to reduce hunger through increased propensity to consume (von Braun 2007); the prices and markets of the world are getting increasingly linked and have significant effects in food consumption patterns (Sardaryan 2002). There is a current dilemma on diverting farmland meant for food crops to growing crops for biofuel as a measure to mitigate climate change.