Comparative assessment of vulnerability of smallholder livestock farmers to climate change in North-West Ghana

ABSTRACT

This study examined the vulnerability of smallholder livestock farmers in North-West Ghana to climate change using data obtained from 200 livestock farmers obtained through the administration of a semi-structured questionnaire. The Livelihood Vulnerability Index (LVI) approach was used to examine the levels of vulnerability. The study compared the vulnerability between the Nandom district and the Lawra district. The empirical results revealed that livestock farmers are more vulnerable to climatic extremes in the Nandom district than the Lawra district. The study highlights the critical role of the government regarding education and construction of water resources, among others.

KEYWORDS:

• Climate change
• livelihood vulnerability index
• adaptive capacity
• exposure
• sensitivity
• Ghana

Acknowledgements

This work was carried out under the Adaptation at Scale in Semi-Arid Regions project (ASSAR). ASSAR is one of five research programmes funded under the Collaborative Adaptation Research Initiative in Africa and Asia (CARIAA), with financial support from the UK Government’s Department for International Development (DfID) and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada (107640-001). The views expressed in this work are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of DfID and IDRC or its Board of Governors. A G. Leventis foundation scholarship also partly funded this research and therefore deserves our acknowledgement.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Pito is a local drink made from millet.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by UK Government’s Department for International Development (DfID) and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada [grant number 107640-001].