Perceived stressors of climate vulnerability across scales in the Savannah zone of Ghana: a participatory approach

Smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa are confronted with climatic and non-climatic stressors. Research attention has focused on climatic stressors, such as rainfall variability, with few empirical studies exploring non-climatic stressors and how these interact with climatic stressors at multiple scales to affect food security and livelihoods. This focus on climatic factors restricts understanding of the combinations of stressors that exacerbate the vulnerability of farming households and hampers the development of holistic climate change adaptation policies. This study addresses this particular research gap by adopting a multi-scale approach to understand how climatic and non-climatic stressors vary, and interact, across three spatial scales (household, community and district levels) to influence livelihood vulnerability of smallholder farming households in the Savannah zone of northern Ghana. This study across three case study villages utilises a series of participatory tools including semi-structured interviews, key informant interviews and focus group discussions. The incidence, importance, severity and overall risk indices for stressors are calculated at the household, community, and district levels. Results show that climatic and non-climatic stressors were perceived differently; yet, there were a number of common stressors including lack of money, high cost of farm inputs, erratic rainfall, cattle destruction of crops, limited access to markets and lack of agricultural equipment that crossed all scales. Results indicate that the gender of respondents influenced the perception and severity assessment of stressors on rural livelihoods at the community level. Findings suggest a mismatch between local and district level priorities that have implications for policy and development of agricultural and related livelihoods in rural communities. Ghana’s climate change adaptation policies need to take a more holistic approach that integrates both climatic and non-climatic factors to ensure policy coherence between national climate adaptation plans and District development plans

Soil respiration at five sites along the Kalahari Transect: Effects of temperature, precipitation pulses and biological soil crust cover

There are increasing concerns that climatic and land use changes will enhance soil respiration rates and soil organic carbon loss, compromising agricultural productivity and further elevating atmospheric CO2. Current understanding of dryland respiration is, however, insufficient to enable prediction of the consequences of these changes for dryland soils and CO2 fluxes. The objectives of this paper are to present in-situ respiration data from five remote sites along a climatic gradient in the Kalahari of Botswana and to determine the effects of temperature, moisture and biological crust cover on soil CO2 fluxes. Moisture was the primary limiting factor to efflux which increased with amount of simulated rainfall. On dry soils, mean CO2 efflux was between 1.5 and 5.9 mg C m− 2 h− 1. After 2 mm and 50 mm simulated wetting, mean rates increased to 4.0 to 21.8 and 8.6 to 41.5 mg C m− 2 h− 1 respectively. Once wet, soil CO2 efflux increases with temperature, and sites at the hotter northern end of the transect lost more CO2 than cooler southerly sites. Net respiration rates are, however, muted by autotrophic organisms in biological soil crusts which photosynthesise and take up CO2. The temperature sensitivity of soil CO2 efflux increased with moisture. Dry, 2 mm and 50 mm treated soils had a Q10 of 1.1, 1.5 and 1.95 respectively. Our findings indicate that higher temperatures and a loss of biological crust cover will lead to greater soil C loss through respiration

Understanding climate services for enhancing resilient agricultural systems in Anglophone West Africa: The case of Ghana

Whilst the capability of climate services to reduce climate impacts is alluring, empirical evidence on how best to mainstream climate information services in Africa is lacking. This paper determines how climate information services have been incorporated into national policies by Anglophone West African states for building agricultural resilience and provides a detailed analysis of issues facing Ghanaian agricultural systems. The paper addresses the questions: (i) to what extent is climate change recognised as a threat to agricultural development in national climate facing policies of Anglophone West African states? (ii) to what extent have climate information services been incorporated into national and regional policy frameworks of Anglophone West African states for resilient agricultural systems? (iii) what are the key challenges in mainstreaming climate information services into national policies for resilient agricultural building in Ghana? The study employed thematic content analysis, multi-stakeholder workshops and expert interviews to understand climate discourses around climate services. Findings show that climate change is highlighted in national and regional level policies as a serious threat to socioeconomic development and agricultural productivity in West Africa. Anglophone West Africa countries are at various stages in establishing a National Framework for Climate Services to help guide future adaptation planning. This study shows that Anglophone West African states have not yet incorporated climate information services into strategic national and regional climate facing policies that are critical in shaping efforts aimed at managing climate risks. For the case of Ghana, the study reveals low awareness of climate change among policy-makers, human and institutional capacity constraints as some of the key factors militating against the mainstreaming of climate information services. Capacity building of policy makers and institutional strengthening are both vital for more effective mainstreaming of climate services across West Africa

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

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

Role of the interaction space in shaping innovation for sustainable agriculture : Empirical insights from African case studies

The challenges of climate change, food insecurity and land degradation have all led to a push for ‘scaling’ innovation for sustainable agriculture. For this purpose, international agricultural development projects often use farm trials or farmer field schools as a way for farmers to engage with technically-constructed knowledge and empirical evidence. However, the role of such trials in the socio-political construction of knowledge is often overlooked. This study conceptualises agricultural development interventions as taking place within an interaction space between researchers and farmers. Unpacking the processes and dynamics of the interaction space from four case studies across Malawi and mainland Tanzania, we present findings which evaluate: 1) how agricultural innovation takes place in the context of funded agricultural development projects, and 2) how space for technical and social knowledge construction can be opened up or closed down in these contexts. Results show that farm trials provide a basis for interaction, but that knowledge exchange in these contexts also require knowledge brokers for successful implementation and scaling. Both knowledge brokers, and the trials themselves shape social dynamics, often simultaneously facilitating social learning for some, but contributing to social exclusions for others. A strong connection was identified between the design of the interaction space and social dynamics evident within it, indicative of the close interconnection between the processes of socio-political and technical construction of knowledge. Key factors open or close the interaction space, such as the continuity of knowledge brokers and the complexity of technologies. Improving the effectiveness of innovation for sustainable agriculture, requires opening up the interaction space to enable more effective and sustained co-creation of technologies, social learning and the collaborative construction of shared knowledge

A new integrated assessment framework for climate-smart nutrition security in sub-Saharan Africa: the integrated Future Estimator for Emissions and Diets (iFEED)

Climate change will put millions more people in Africa at risk of food and nutrition insecurity by 2050. Integrated assessments of food systems tend to be limited by either heavy reliance on models or a lack of information on food and nutrition security. Accordingly, we developed a novel integrated assessment framework that combines models with in-country knowledge and expert academic judgement to explore climate-smart and nutrition-secure food system futures: the integrated Future Estimator for Emissions and Diets (iFEED). Here, we describe iFEED and present its application in Malawi, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia. The iFEED process begins with a participatory scenario workshop. In-country stakeholders identify two key drivers of food system change, and from these, four possible scenarios are defined. These scenarios provide the underlying narratives of change to the food system. Integrated modelling of climate change, food production and greenhouse gas emissions is then used to explore nutrition security and climate-smart agriculture outcomes for each scenario. Model results are summarised using calibrated statements - quantitative statements of model outcomes and our confidence in them. These include statements about the way in which different trade futures interact with climate change and domestic production in determining nutrition security at the national level. To understand what the model results mean for food systems, the calibrated statements are expanded upon using implication statements. The implications rely on input from a wide range of academic experts – including agro-ecologists and social scientists. A series of workshops are used to incorporate in-country expertise, identifying any gaps in knowledge and summarising information for country-level recommendations. iFEED stakeholder champions help throughout by providing in-country expertise and disseminating knowledge to policy makers. iFEED has numerous novel aspects that can be used and developed in future work. It provides information to support evidence-based decisions for a climate-smart and nutrition-secure future. In particular, iFEED: i. employs novel and inclusive reporting of model results and associated in-country food system activities, with comprehensive reporting of uncertainty; ii. includes climate change mitigation alongside adaptation measures; and iii. quantifies future population-level nutrition security, as opposed to simply assessing future production and food security implications

Convection permitting regional climate change simulations for understanding future climate and informing decision making in Africa

Pan-Africa convection-permitting regional climate model simulations have been performed to study the impact of high resolution and the explicit representation of atmospheric moist convection on the present and future climate of Africa. These unique simulations have allowed European and African climate scientists to understand the critical role that the representation of convection plays in the ability of a contemporary climate model to capture climate and climate change, including many impact relevant aspects such as rainfall variability and extremes. There are significant improvements in not only the small-scale characteristics of rainfall such as its intensity and diurnal cycle, but also in the large-scale circulation. Similarly effects of explicit convection affect not only projected changes in rainfall extremes, dry-spells and high winds, but also continental-scale circulation and regional rainfall accumulations. The physics underlying such differences are in many cases expected to be relevant to all models that use parameterized convection. In some cases physical understanding of small-scale change mean that we can provide regional decision makers with new scales of information across a range of sectors. We demonstrate the potential value of these simulations both as scientific tools to increase climate process understanding and, when used with other models, for direct user applications. We describe how these ground-breaking simulations have been achieved under the UK Government’s Future Climate for Africa Programme. We anticipate a growing number of such simulations, which we advocate should become a routine component of climate projection, and encourage international co-ordination of such computationally, and human-resource expensive simulations as effectively as possible

The African SWIFT project: growing science capability to bring about a revolution in weather prediction

Africa is poised for a revolution in the quality and relevance of weather predictions, with potential for great benefits in terms of human and economic security. This revolution will be driven by recent international progress in nowcasting, numerical weather prediction, theoretical tropical dynamics and forecast communication, but will depend on suitable scientific investment being made. The commercial sector has recognized this opportunity and new forecast products are being made available to African stakeholders. At this time, it is vital that robust scientific methods are used to develop and evaluate the new generation of forecasts. The GCRF African SWIFT project represents an international effort to advance scientific solutions across the fields of nowcasting, synoptic and short-range severe weather prediction, subseasonal-to-seasonal (S2S) prediction, user engagement and forecast evaluation. This paper describes the opportunities facing African meteorology and the ways in which SWIFT is meeting those opportunities and identifying priority next steps. Delivery and maintenance of weather forecasting systems exploiting these new solutions requires a trained body of scientists with skills in research and training; modelling and operational prediction; communications and leadership. By supporting partnerships between academia and operational agencies in four African partner countries, the SWIFT project is helping to build capacity and capability in African forecasting science. A highlight of SWIFT is the coordination of three weather-forecasting “Testbeds” – the first of their kind in Africa – which have been used to bring new evaluation tools, research insights, user perspectives and communications pathways into a semi-operational forecasting environment