Impact of Climate Change on the Livelihood of Women in Agriculture in Ghana: A Case Study of Donkokrom

Abstract

The study set out to investigate the impact of climate change on the livelihood of women in agriculture in Ghana using Donkokrom as the research setting. The researcher employed quantitative research specifically, descriptive and correctional methods to study the phenomena. A total of one-hundred and fifty (150) survey questionnaires were distributed to female farmers in Donkokrom. Upon following up with the farmers, ninety questionnaires were received. Five questionnaires were excluded from the final data analysis due to incompleteness. Therefore, a total of eighty-five questionnaires were used for the analysis representing 56.7%. Descriptive statistics and hierarchical regression were used for the analysis with the help of SPSS version 20. The finding shows that the majority of the respondents indicated that for the last 10 years, access to rainfall patterns has Changed/altered while only a few of them opined that they don’t know. Most of the respondents indicate that changes are caused by climate change-related reasons while the minority selected other related issues such as superstition/religion. In terms of challenges of climate change on their farming activities, the result revealed that the majority of the women farmers select bushfires as the major challenge they face followed by the rising day temperature, floods, Persistent drought, Early cessation of the rainy season, less rain during the rainy season, Erratic rainfall during the rainy season, Rising night-time temperatures, Late onset of the rainy season, More rain during the rainy season, and the uncertain onset of the rainy season. Finally, the impact of climate change adaptive strategies on the livelihood of the farmers revealed that all the independent variables – Seed Variety, Soil Moisture Retention Techniques, Soil Fertility Techniques, and Irrigation Infrastructure significantly improved the livelihood of the women farmers in the country. Recommendations were put forth for the stakeholders and future researchers.