Eleventh International Conference on Climate Change: Impacts & Responses

Abstract

Agriculture in Africa is vulnerable to changing climate due to its overreliance on rain-fed agriculture. Although numerous potential adaptation options have been identified as a result of increase in research on vulnerability and adaptation, African countries including Ghana lag the rest of the world in climate adaptation. Factors contributing to climate vulnerability differ between places, sectors and communities. Since there is limited knowledge guiding specific subsector vulnerability assessments, applicability of the Livelihood Vulnerability Index to understand vulnerability among smallholder horticultural farming households to impacts of climate variability in two districts were explored in Ghana. A total of 480 households engaged in horticultural crop production were surveyed in Keta and Nsawam districts of Ghana. Using composite index, data collected were aggregated and compared. Smallholder horticultural farmers in Keta were more vulnerable in relation to exposure and sensitivity to climate variability while smallholders in Nsawam were more vulnerable in terms of capacity to adapt to climate variability. To enhance future planning and policy discussions, identification and assessment of adaptation options to manage climate variability is recommended. Decision on eventual selection and implementation of suggested adaptation practices particularly for smallholder farmers should be guided given their limited resources. Overall, for smallholder vulnerability assessments within local and national levels research should combine theoretical insights from livelihood analysis with an appraisal method that best provides analysis on gains and losses arising from an investment in adaptation options as an analytical framework to understand the concept of climate vulnerability for improvement in adaptation of smallholder systems.