Developing Climate And Weather Information For Planning And Decision Making For Smallholder Farmers In Northern Ghana

Abstract

The evidence of climate change and variability and its risk to climatedependent livelihoods is enormous. The sensitivity of rain-fed agriculture to climate demands evidence-based climate risk management by smallholder farmers. The production and access to useful climate information are imperative in building smallholder farmers' resilience and adaptive capacity. This research established the evidence of climate change, the relationship between ENSO and the climate over the North of Ghana, and produced relevant agricultural climate information useful for smallholder farmers' planning and decision-making. The study was framed on the theory of planned behaviour as its theoretical lens in guiding the presentation of the study's outcome. The climate data used spans from 1960 to 2018. This study has revealed that rainfall in the north of Ghana and the rainfall-dependent relevant agricultural information have not changed over the years but remains variable. The southern part of the study area has a spatial and temporal advantage over the northern part of the studied agriculturally relevant information. The day and night temperatures have all changed with spatial and temporal dynamics in the study area. Evaporation is increasing in the entire study area, and for some parts of the north, there is a significant increasing trend in evapotranspiration. There is a weak teleconnection between the climate of the study area and ENSO, although the correlation is relatively stronger with temperature compared to rainfall. The spatial and temporal dynamics require location-specific information for climate risk management decisions for any climate information services delivery.