CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background
Adaptation to climate changes in recent years is a major concern to farmers, researchers, and policy makers. Nhamo et al., (2013) posit that smallholder farmers were aware of changes in climate with reduced rainfall, higher temperature, and lower yields being the dominant effects noticed by them. In Africa the direct dependence on the already marginalised natural resources requires an appropriate coping measure to address the negative impact of climate change in agriculture (Ziervogel et al., 2008). Empirical studies by (Umar et al., 2015; Waongo et al, 2015; Komba &Muchaponda, 2012) show that such impacts can be significantly reduced through climate adaptation strategies. Effort has also been made by international communities to address issues of climate change globally, with the most notable establishment being Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – IPCC (Ndaki, 2014). IPCC has been instrumental in enhancing scientific understanding of the magnitude and severity of the economic, technical and environmental risk of climate change. For the past 2 decades, global discussion from climate experts, researchers, scientist and some leaders has been aimed at agreeing on appropriate policies, climate strategies and action required to be undertaken in addressing the challenge.
Ghana has developed policies aimed at providing strategic direction and coordinating issues on climate change. The specific strategic direction emphasizes that social development is key in its policy formulation. With the objective of the policy being effective adaptation, social development and mitigation, with agriculture and food security being one of its thematic areas (MEST, 2012). Adaptation is the changes in processes, and practices to manage the potential damages that occur from climate
change (Smit, 2003). Adaptation enables farmers increase their ability to meet their income and livelihood objectives when climate change occurs (Otitoju, 2013).
The Ghanaian economy largely depends on Agriculture and the sector plays a vital role in the development process in the country. The sector provides employment to about 44.7% of the country’s population making it the largest employer in the country and it also contributes 20.2% to the National Gross Domestic product (MOFA, 2016). Crop production, excluding cocoa, stands as the largest contributor to agriculture’s share in the country’s GDP. In Ghana, agriculture is predominately on smallholder basis, with holdings less than 2 hectare in size (MOFA, 2016). The main staple food crops produced in Ghana include maize, rice, cassava, and yam with smallholder farmers contributing a higher share in the production of these staple crops. The impact of changes in climate are expected to adversely affect smallholder farmers because their activities depend on climate regulated water resource.
Climate explains the average state of a prevailing geographical area’s weather over period ranging from a couple of weeks to beyond 30 years (Ferdinand et al., 2013). Changes in climate increases the occurrence and magnitude of natural disasters and extreme weather conditions which are mainly drought, floods, rising sea levels and changes in rainfall pattern. These changes are expected to reduce the agricultural productivity especially in Sub Saharan Africa (Ferdinand et al., 2013). A report by Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicts that Sub Saharan African countries will have their output from rain fed agriculture fall by 50% by the year 2050 (Ferdinand et al., 2013). Estimates also show that agricultural productivity, production stability, and farmers income are likely to reduce due to changes in climate (Lipper et al., 2011).
Climate change is the change in statistics of average temperature, average number of rainfall and frequency of drought over years. Climate scientist have shown that in the past 100 years the mean temperatures has increased by 0.8 oC with the last 35 years being the period with the highest increase. Contributing factors to changes in climate through the depletion of the ozone layer includes urbanization, deforestation, population growth, industrialization (Otitoju, 2013).
In Ghana, climate change is experienced through decreased rainfall and increasing variation in rainfall patterns, rising sea levels and increasing temperature. An analysis carried out by Ministry of Environment Science and Technology (MEST) between 1960 – 2000 showed progressive rise in temperature by 0.210C per decade, rainfall pattern becoming erratic in all the ecological zone and sea level increasing by 2.1mm per year (MEST, 2012).
Adapting to climate involves taking the right measures to minimise the negative effects and maximise the positive effects form changes in climate. Climate adaptation strategies have become relevant especially for agricultural economies or communities. Africa is indicated to be most prone to the negative changes from climate stress which increases vulnerability to further climate change. Smit and Skinner (2002) indicated that in absence of climate adaptation strategies, production in agriculture will be problematic. Yaro (2010) also showed that an important means of sustaining livelihood and survival of the poor rural farmers is through adopting climate adaptation strategies in the various agro ecological zones.
Adaptation strategies will vary with agricultural systems, location, and scenarios of the climate change being considered (Rosenzweig &Tubiello, 2007). Some popular adaptation strategies include; livelihood diversification, changing planting date, afforestation, adopting soil conservation methods, improve irrigation efficacy, and
planting improved seed varieties which could help in reducing the vulnerability to climate change. Rosenzweig and Tubiello (2007) indicated that shifting from rainfed to irrigated agriculture is one other simply way of reducing the effects of changes in climate, however, consideration of water availability, cost and competition from other sectors should not be ignored.
Climate adaptation strategies have been established with objectives: to reduce exposure to risks of damage; to develop the capacity to deal with unavoidable damages; and to take advantage of new development. An economic analysis carried out on Ghana using a general equilibrium analysis showed that losses from agricultural sector alone will amount to $122 million per annum if no adaptation strategies are implemented (Perthuis et al., 2010). The climate related adaptation strategies if used by rice farmers, will serve, as an important means of increasing their productivity.
The major constraints to applying agriculture adaptation strategies in Africa has been lack of knowledge, expertise, and date on climate change work and the need for a better institutional framework in which to implement adaptation. Actions required to address these gaps include: training programmes, dedicated research activities, improving and increasing the collective capacity to adapt (Akinnagbe & Irohibe, 2014).
Rice is a staple crop in the country and the second most consumed crop after maize. In Ghana the rice market is segmented mainly by variety, extent of processing, quality and sources of the rice (Gage et al., 2012). Both local and imported rice are sold in the market through different market channels but due to irregularities in supply of local rice, the imported rice has majority of the market share (Angelucci et al., 2013). Gage et al. (2012) identified late harvesting and parboiled rice (which is not preferred by consumers) as some marketing inefficiencies of local rice, aside its irregular supply
mentioned earlier. The authors further suggested that these marketing inefficiencies cause the local market to lose an estimated US$ 20 million in the industry.
In Ghana, rice is cultivated in all the 10 regions, covering all the ecological zones of the country. Production of rice in Ghana is mostly done by planting on the uplands covering (6%), lowlands valley covering (78%), and with irrigation covering (6%). Rice production in Ghana has increased from 122,000mt/ha in 2004 to about 224,000 MT/ha in 2015 reflecting a growth rate of 6.2% per annum (MOFA, 2016). Even though rice production in metric tonnes has increased over the period, this cannot be readily attributed to increase in yield but other factor such as increasing acreage under cultivating over the period (Gage et al., 2012). Volta region is currently the leading producer of rice with 184,279.32 MT produced followed by the Northern region with 168,407.25 MT based on an average production of three years from 2013 to 2015 (MOFA, 2016). The national average yield of rice production in the country is 2.75MT/ha as against the potential yield of 6.0 MT/ha (MOFA, 2016). The Government of Ghana and developing partners support numerous efforts to increase the yield of rice production by introducing new improved variety and other production technology; with upland yields increasing from 2.0 MT/ha to 3.5 MT/ha and for lowlands and irrigation from 3.5 MT/ha and 6.0 MT/ha respectively (Gage et al., 2012).
Problem Statement
By 2050 the agriculture sector must provide for an additional 20 million Ghanaians. Rice is the second most consumed staple in Ghana with an estimated 1.0 million MT consumed in 2017 as against the 450,000 MT produced locally (Ashitey, 2018). This implies that over 50% of consumed rice is imported and this requires an increase in production to reduce import and meet the growing rural and urban population’s demands. The consumption of rice has experienced a rapid shift especially among urban
dwellers with per capita consumption rate increasing from 17 kg to 38 kg between 1990’s to 2016 (MoFA, 2016). The government of Ghana have come up with policies captured in FASDEP and METASIP aimed at increasing productivity and efficiency in the rice sector. The National Rice Development Strategy (NRDS) was also instituted by the government to achieve self-sufficiency from sustainable rice production.
However, climate scenarios indicate that countries with their economy largely dependent on agriculture will largely be negatively affected and thus slow down their ability to sufficiently support their economy. Evidence shows that Ghana, among other countries over the period, has experienced higher temperature with lower and erratic rainfall patterns (MEST, 2013). Farms under irrigation are very limited and farmers’ high reliance on unpredictable climate tends to make them vulnerable affecting their livelihood (Namara et al., 2011). Most Ghanaians living in rural communities rely on rain fed agriculture and are exposed to hazards such as drought, flood, and bush fires (MEST, 2013). Farmers are gradually adopting less primitive techniques in farming but they still have less than 11% of rice production under irrigation (Mendes et al., 2014). This brings an additional challenge of keeping up with the increasing demand for rice complimented by the persistence of climate variability.
In the phase of production challenges in the rice sector, the government of Ghana under the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) makes it affordable for farmers to purchase fertilizer and seeds at subsidized price with the aim of increasing production and reducing the importation of rice (Ashitey, 2018). Although some growth in production may be recorded under this initiative, rice production continues to be at the subsistence level. Production of rice is primarily under rain fed conditions, in valley bottoms/low lying area leaving the sector to the impact of floods, drought, bush fires occurring as a result of climate variability. The central question is that can smallholder rice farmers in
the rural areas and for this study, Hohoe Municipality, improve their production efficiency through climate adaptation strategies and in effect increase their production output?
Previous studies carried out on production efficiency of rice farmers analysed their socioeconomic and farm-specific attributes to determine the efficiency level of their production (Al-Hassan, 2012; Asefa, 2011; Yiadom-Boakye et al., 2013). Some climate related studies have analysed the adaptive capacities of farmers (Mabe et al., 2012) and factors influencing adoptions and perception to climate change (Ewtire et al., 2013; Ndaki, 2014; Ndamani & Watanabe, 2016; Waongo et al., 2015). However, Roco et al. (2017) carried out a study in Chile where effects of adaptation strategies used on their agricultural production was analysed using a stochastic frontier approach. Although research studies have been carried out on climate and production efficiency, none of the studies have attempted to exclusively examine the influence of climate change adaptation strategies on smallholder rice production efficiency (technical efficiency) in the Hohoe Municipality.
Hence, this study seeks to analyse the climate adaptation strategies being used in the study area and its effects on rice productivity in the Hohoe Municipal. This leads to the following research questions
- What are the climate adaptation strategies used by smallholder rice farmers in the study area?
- What are the factors influencing the choice of climate adaptation strategies used by the smallholder rice farmers in the Hohoe municipal?
- Which of the adaptation strategies used by the smallholder farmers enhances their production efficiency?
