Smallholder Maize Farming Households’ Vulnerability To Climate Change In The Brong-Ahafo Region Of Ghana

ABSTRACT This study investigated smallholder maize farming households’ vulnerability to climate change, factors affecting the vulnerability of the households and households’ constraints to climate change adaptation strategies in the Wenchi and Techiman Municipalities in the Brong-Ahafo Region of Ghana. Primary data were collected through a personal administered questionnaire. One Hundred and fifty (150) smallholder maize farming households were randomly sampled. The Livelihood vulnerability index was employed to establish household vulnerability to climate change. The generalized least square regression model was employed to estimate the factors affecting household vulnerability, and the Kendall’s ranking technique was used to rank the households’ constraints to climate change adaptation strategies. The result shows that in the pooled sample, 35.3% of the households were lowly vulnerable, 38.7% were moderately vulnerable, 24.7% were highly vulnerable and only 1.3% were extremely vulnerable. In the Wenchi Municipality 40% were lowly vulnerable, 44% were moderately vulnerable, 14.7% were highly vulnerable and 1.3% were extremely vulnerable. In the Techiman Municipality 30.7% were lowly vulnerable, 33.3% were moderately vulnerable and 34.7% were highly vulnerable whiles only 1.3% were extremely vulnerable. The overall index showed that Wenchi Municipality was more vulnerable than the Techiman Municipality with Livelihood Vulnerability Indices of 0.346 and 0.312 as well as the LVI-IPCC of -0.011 and -0.015 respectively. Parameter estimates of the generalized least regression showed that for the pooled sample, gender of household head, age of head, household size, farm size, hired labour, family labour, physical asset, rainfall perception and economically active female members of household influenced household vulnerability. For the Techiman Municipality, farm size, temperature perception, hired labour, family labour, physical asset and economically active female members of household influenced household vulnerability to climate change. In the Wenchi Municipality, gender of household head, farm size, rainfall perception and family labour influenced household vulnerability to climate change. The result of the Kendall’s ranking technique showed that for the pooled sample, the three most pressing constraints to climate change adaptation strategies were, lack of access to credit, lack of a ready market for produce and poor extension service with mean scores of 2.01, 2.85 and 3.48 respectively. For the Techiman Municipality the three most important constraints were, lack of access to credit, poor extension service and lack of a ready market for produce with mean scores of 2.25, 2.61 and 3.45 respectively, while in the Wenchi Municipality, lack of access to credit, lack of a ready market for produce and lack of access to meteorological information were the three most pressing constraints with mean scores of 1.77, 2.24 and 4.28 respectively. The results reveal households are vulnerable to climate change. Hence a policy regarding to health would help decrease vulnerability of households. Also rural development policy would create more employment opportunities for the households leading to improved livelihoods.