Diagnosing the potential of hydro-climatic information services to support rice farming in northern Ghana

Abstract

Hydro-climatic information has a potential to improve agricultural productivity under climate variability. Recent developments in information sharing platforms (Environmental Virtual Observatories, EVOs) could make information provisioning more actionable. Here we present the results of a diagnostic study for the development of a hydro-climatic EVO that enables rice farmers in Northern Ghana to deal with climate variability and water shortage. The hydro-climatic EVO aims to combine data from scientific and indigenous forecast systems, facilitating information exchange using two-way interaction with stakeholders to co-produce knowledge. Data was collected through informal interviews with field practitioners, through focus group discussions with farmers and content analysis of documents. Results show that both the biophysical and socio-institutional circumstances need be taken into account for the development of the EVO. Existing governance and information exchange arrangements and lack of collaboration between actors were found to limit current hydro-climatic information flow, interpretation, and use. Our study reveals existing models of information exchange and their limitations in the study area. We discuss the proposed design of a hydro-climatic EVO from a responsible innovation perspective, considering possible future eventualities in a process that aims to be anticipatory, inclusive, reflexive and responsive. We conclude that such a hydro-climatic EVO has a potential to contribute to rice farmers’ adaptive decision-making in Northern Ghana, but there are challenges that need to be considered. The diagnostic study has helped to refine these challenges and offers concrete suggestions to improve both the design and implementation of the proposed platform in a responsible way.

Keywords:

• Diagnostics
• Hydro-climatic
• EVOs
• Rice
• Ghana

1 Introduction

Due to increased anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions the global temperatures are rising with a change in global water cycle resulting in more erratic precipitation patterns. Consequently, both soil and surface water availability is becoming less reliable (IPCC, 2014). This increased climate variability is affecting smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. Currently more than 600 million people in rural communities in sub-Saharan Africa depend on agriculture for their livelihoods (Rockström et al., 2014). Many farmers are struggling to cope with challenging conditions, which result in low yields and food insecurity (Di Falco et al., 2011). One of the main problems for food production in Africa is large-scale climate variability. Both inter-annual and seasonal rainfall variability are a challenge for farming decision-making in Sub-Saharan Africa. Future climate change caused by increased greenhouse gas emissions are likely to result in changing rainfall patterns.

Similar to other countries within Guinea and Sudan Savanna agro-ecological zones, Ghana is vulnerable to climate variability and change (Africa Partnership Forum, 2007). The agricultural sector depends heavily on rainfall that varies annually and seasonally. This significantly affects soil water availability for crops and increases the risks for low crop production and failure (Kunstmann and Jung, 2005; Asante and Amuakwa-Mensah, 2014). Meanwhile the agriculture sector is very important for the economy of Ghana, employing 44% of the work-force and accounts for nearly one-quarter of GDP (CIA, 2012). The degree of community vulnerability and crop failure is greatest in its three northern regions, namely Upper East, Upper West, and the Northern region. Farmers in these regions are faced with many uncertainties prior to every growing season, most of which are attributed to water and climate variability (Gbetibouo et al., 2017).

Due to increasing climate variability farmers struggle about decisions such as seed variety to plant, when to plant, when to fertilize, when to do supplementary irrigation and sometimes when to harvest. According to Ndamani and Watanabe (2013), a farmer usually starts to make preparations for planting crops with the onset of the rainy season. After months of drought, the soil is dry and hard. In the month of May, the farmer starts to look into the sky every day expecting the first rain clouds to appear, which would indicate the beginning of the major production season. When the rain finally comes, the farmer starts to plough his land and plants his crops. But his mind is filled with worry. How much rain will there be this year? Will there be another dry spell shortly after the first rain, which could destroy the seedlings? Would it be better to wait and start seeding later? He recalls, however, that two years ago, there was no dry period in May and a heavy rain washed away the seeds that he had planted too late.

Finding solution to these dilemmas of a typical farmer is vital and urgent. Several studies have predicted the future climate of Ghana to be more variable and uncertain, making the agriculture sector more vulnerable (Kankam-Yeboah et al., 2013; Water Resources Commission, 2010; Obuobie et al., 2012). Recent progress in climate modeling has increased the ability to predict rainfall from a few days to seasonal forecasts (Njau, 2010). Being able to predict the weather and climate especially rainfall is indispensable for guiding water users, especially farmers in their planning and decision making (Logah et al., 2013). Empirical studies have shown that climate forecasts can help farmers reduce their vulnerability to drought and climate extremes, while also allowing them to maximize opportunities when favorable conditions are predicted (Patt et al., 2005; Phillips et al., 2001; Roncoli et al., 2009).

The underlying assumption in the current practices of hydro-climatic information services is that if we provide the farmer with more and better information, they would be able to improve their farming practices (Etwire et al., 2017; Anoop et al., 2015; Okello et al., 2011). This one-directional model of providing climate services has shown to be flawed, as farmers tend not to trust scientific information and experience difficulties in interpreting and using it. They are therefore confident that their indigenous systems work better (Hartmann et al., 1999; Letson et al., 2001; Mcnew et al., 1991). Efforts to train farmers to adopt this model of providing climate services generally fail to improve the uptake of climate information (Manyanhaire, 2015; Patt and Gwata, 2002), because providers also have little understanding of users, and what drives the influence of indigenous forecasts (Artikov et al., 2006).

We however argue that science should not be a one directional effort, where science produces new knowledge and information and makes it accessible for end-users. Instead, the process should be interactive, where science and practice co-design, co-create and co-produce knowledge by bringing in different forms of expertise. The latter would result in better appreciation of the scientific expertise as well as indigenous knowledge necessary to improve societal resilience to climate change (Hiwasaki et al., 2014, 2015; Mazzocchi, 2006). Increasingly there are calls for involving farmers not only as end-user, but as an active participant who is not only involved in use of the information, but also in the creation of it.

Environmental Virtual Observatories (EVOs) aim to enable cross-fertilization of different sources of environmental knowledge on web-based virtual platforms, incorporating information gathering, processing and dissemination technologies (Karpouzoglou et al., 2016). The first generations of these systems aimed to support the scientific process of knowledge creation and mainly targeted scientific audiences. They failed to deliver a strong knowledge creation component especially in information generation and dissemination projects that seek to empower local communities to manage their environmental change using actionable knowledge (Dewulf et al., 2005). Hence, several authors have proposed second generation EVOs that emphasize knowledge co-creation between scientists and societal actors, and bidirectional information flows, so as to create actionable knowledge that can support decision-making (Karpouzoglou et al., 2016). However, these systems are place based and context sensitive, requiring a thorough understanding of the potential to uptake co-develop, co-produce and co-implement such hydro-climatic information systems.

As part of a larger endeavor, we aim to design a “second generation” information system in the form of a hydro-climatic information system called a hydro-climatic Environmental Virtual Observatory. This system will use data from the scientific seasonal climate forecast ECMWF-4 (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts-system 4) model, complemented with farmers indigenous forecast collected through citizen science (Pettibone et al., 2016) to generate actionable knowledge for adaptive decision making in rice farming systems. Karpouzoglou et al., (2016) indicate that in the context of emerging open-technologies for information exchange, added value can be achieved by removing institutional and geographical barriers associated with information flow.

In this paper we aim to diagnose the socio-ecological settings of rice farming systems in northern Ghana in the context of climate variability and change to ensure effective design and operationalisation of hydro-climatic EVO. We first conduct a diagnosis of the socio-ecological settings of rice production system in Northern Ghana in the context of climate variability and change. In the next step, we elaborate the diagnostics by focused on hydro-climatic information needs and use in rice based farming systems. Based on these diagnostic steps, we identify the specific challenges and opportunities identified in our case region, which could be meaningfully addressed by a potential EVO. We used the four dimensions of Responsible Innovation to reflect on the robustness of the design and processes of hydro-climatic EVO to deal with the challenges and opportunities faced in a responsible way. The outcome of our study is a framework for the hydro-climatic EVO outlining its properties and processes.

2 Conceptual framework

Studies show that crop management strategies of farmers (e.g. timing of planting, weeding, fertilizing, application of pesticides) are shaped by predictive weather/climate information. Traditionally farmers make use of indigenous knowledge to produce seasonal and weather forecast (Svotwa et al., 2007). Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) is known by a wide variety of terms, including indigenous knowledge (IK), local knowledge (LK) and traditional knowledge (TK). It has many definitions and there is no consensus on an operational definition applicable across disciplines. Huntington et al. (2004) for example, understands TEK as ‘…the knowledge and insights acquired through extensive observations of an area or species’ (Huntington et al., 2004, p 1270). In contrast, Berkes et al., (1995) in an attempt to more fully incorporate indigenous world views, broadens the scope of TEK and define it as ‘…a cumulative body of knowledge, practice, and belief, evolving by adaptive processes and handed down through generations by cultural transmission, about the relationship of living beings (including humans) with one another and with their environment (Berkes et al., 1995, p7). In the context of this study, emphasis is placed on “indigenous”, which is defined as native or local knowledge that is passed on from generation to generation. Such knowledge is used for “forecasting”, i.e. the prediction of a future occurrence or condition (Daily Nation, 2017). Indigenous forecasts are based on farmers’ experience of changes in certain biophysical indicators (Orlove et al., 2010; Roncoli et al.,2002). Literature shows that African farmers are using various local weather indicators such as plants, animals, insects, the solar system and wind in predicting the weather and climate (Speranza et al., 2010; Ziervogel and Opere, 2010; Tarhule and Lamb, 2003; Roncoli et al.,2002). Studies have therefore suggested that particularly in Africa indigenous knowledge has the potential to enhance farmers’ adaptation to climate variability and change (Naess, 2013; Derbile et al., 2016; Mikkelsen and Langohr, 2004). However, it is plausible that indigenous knowledge is not sufficient anymore because of projected climate change.

Increasingly, scientific projections are developed to further inform farmers about short, medium and long-term climate variability and change, particularly for rainfall. It is important, however, to acknowledge that weather and climate forecast systems have limited value unless they can directly influence decisions and have an impact on the systems under consideration (Hammer, 2000). Manyanhaire (2015) argue for the integration of indigenous knowledge systems with climate change science as a basis for comprehensive community based response to the impacts of climate change. It is argued that farmers are more likely to adopt new ideas when these can be seen in the context of their existing practices. Patt and Gwata (2002) for example observed that farmers’ willingness to use seasonal climate forecasts increased when the forecasts presented are combined and compared with local indigenous forecasts.

As indicated in the introduction, creating conditions that allow for knowledge exchange between scientists, decision-makers and citizens is becoming increasingly necessary for building resilience and responding to environmental change (UN, 2014; Mol, 2006; Buytaert et al., 2014; Folke et al., 2010). The concept of Environmental Virtual Observatories (EVOs) offers the opportunity to bring together scientific and indigenous knowledge (Karpouzoglou et al., 2016). Examples of first generation of these EVOs are Wilkinson et al. (2013) for communicating flood risk to catchment stakeholders and a cloud technology for connecting and integrating fragmented data, models, and tools to deliver new holistic approaches to environmental challenges (Emmett et al.,2014). They have paid less emphasis on how enhanced participation of a variety of users can be achieved via a virtual platform. In many cases, projects that seek to generate and disseminate information that provides actionable knowledge for empowering local communities and enhancing environmental management for example have achieved limited success (Dewulf et al., 2005).

Despite considerable progress in recent years, many cases exist where knowledge and perspectives of certain groups of people are either not included or under represented (Karpouzoglou et al., 2016). This is particularly challenging for EVOs that exist on the interface between scientists and non-expert users. Similarly, most of the first generation EVO’s are developed and communicated, using mostly top-down approaches. For example, local farmers are considered as end-users of forecast products developed by scientist from universities and/or research institutions. In most cases, farmers do not contribute to the process of developing the weather climate forecast products (Ouédraogo et al., 2015). As a result, the communicated forecasts are often not locally specific or applicable and therefore contribute to limited action. Second generation EVOs seek to resolve this problem by enhancing participation of all relevant stakeholders.

While first generation EVOs are primed for scientists, second generation EVOs have a benefit to include knowledge co-creation and resilience through their participatory design. Second generation EVOs such as those proposed by Karpouzoglou et al., (2016) have a stronger focus on the processes of knowledge co-creation and interaction between stakeholders. An important aspect of this knowledge co-creation EVO is its potential to achieve greater relevance by engaging with stakeholders. In some cases, citizen become active contributors to science (Buytaert et al., 2014) and EVO’s offer the possibility to connect scientist and local farmers via a virtual platform where information is exchanged and knowledge created to support farm decision-making. Active engagement of farmers can range from short-term collection of data to intensive engagement in creating new knowledge with scientists and/or other volunteers (Pettibone et al., 2016).

Introducing new innovations such as EVO’s should be undertaken responsibly, especially when directed at socially desirable and socially acceptable ends (Owen et al., 2013). Designing these EVOs responsibly means acknowledging that such frameworks are not only technical but are also socially and politically constituted (Winner, 1978). Innovative technologies that underlie EVO’s might have great benefits for society, but unforeseen impacts are not just possible but probable. To guide the design and evaluation of our EVO, we build onto the responsible innovation concept. We make use of the responsible innovation (RI) framework of Stilgoe et al. (2013) which provides a set of basic principles that seek to maintain novelty and at the same time make it responsible: anticipation, reflexivity, inclusion, and responsiveness. Anticipation requires that researchers and organizations continuously ask ‘what if?’ questions, which include but not limited to what are the likely consequences? What are possible unintended effects? It requires projection and futuristic thinking in a systematic way and consideration of how the EVO is predictable and resilient to change.

For example, it provides early warnings of future unfavourable consequences and estimate risk-based harm of innovations (European Environment Agency, 2001, 2013; Hoffmann-Riem and Wynne, 2002).The second dimension, reflexivity, refers to the principle that institutions and organizations must reflect on their activities and assumptions and acknowledge that the knowledge they produce and use has limitations. How they frame issues may not be universally applicable and without reflexivity may lead to frame conflicts or unresponsiveness of stakeholders (Stilgoe et al.,2013; Wynne,1993). The third dimension, inclusion, refers to the need to involve minorities and groups without a voice in the innovation process (Hajer, 2009; Felt, 2009; Stilgoe et al., 2013). Whereas the first generation of EVO’s placed limited emphasis on stakeholder involvement, responsible innovation requires active involvement of different groups through dialogue and representation throughout the innovation process. The dimension of responsiveness as proposed by Stilgoe et al. (2013) requires that systems of innovation have the capacity to change or shape direction in response to stakeholder and public values and changing circumstances. Also in this = article, we use the framework to evaluate the proposed hydro-climatic EVO.

3 Methodology

In this paper, we address the following research question: How will the existing socio-ecological setting in rice production systems in Northern Ghana promote or hinder a possible hydroclimatic EVO design and operationalisation? To diagnose our case region and analyze the potential for designing a new EVO, the study adopts a systematic approach involving five sequential steps (see Fig. 1). We gathered data from both primary and secondary sources using qualitative methods of data collection and analysis.

Fig. 1 Workflow of the study.

3.1 Data collection

To collect data, we made use of three qualitative methods: content analysis of existing documents, interviews, and focus group discussions. The selection of methods provided us insight into the socio-ecological context of the case study, information needs and use as well as the challenges of existing systems and opportunities for the development of a hydro-climatic EVO.

a) Research literature and documents analysis:

We collected policy documents, donor agency reports, scientific research articles and research reports from related projects and programs by going through government and non-governmental organizations’ websites and online repositories. We specifically focused on analyzing local governance and institutional documents containing rules, structures and arrangements about farming, irrigation and water use in Northern Ghana to gain a thorough understanding of the decision-making context and practices. The data collected helped us also to guide the interviews.

b) Interviews

We informally engaged in an open conversation with fifteen (15) practitioners from nine different organizations (Table 1). To allow the discussion to move in the direction preferred by the practitioners, we opted not to use a structured interview guide, but rather semi-structured the conversations along topics emerging from the document analysis. The informal setting allowed respondents to speak more freely and openly about their experiences and helped in building relationships for future collaborations.

Table 1 Stakeholders engaged in informal interviews.

Stakeholders	Number Interviewed	Reason for inclusion
1. Applied Meteorological Unit - Ghana Meteorological Agency (GMet, 2016)	1	Study and provide weather, climate and meteorological advices to the general public and farmers
2.Ghana Irrigation Development Authority (GIDA)-	1	Responsible for Irrigation and water management of all irrigation projects and their development
3. Ministry Of Food & Agriculture (MoFA)- Crop Division (RSSP AND GCAP)	3	In charge of the sustainability of food and agriculture. RSSP and GCAP raise awareness and support farmers with inputs and climate related advice that boost domestic rice production and commercialize farming.
4. Irrigation Water Manager (IWM)	1	Manages the irrigation scheme at Bontanga where research is largely carried out.
5. Ghana Hydrological Services (GHS)	1	Studies water bodies in the region. Have access to historical data of river flow and other hydrological information.
6. Faculty of Agriculture and Agricultural Engineering-University For Development Studies (UDS)	2	Teach students who major in general agriculture, agriculture engineering, soil and water conservation, and irrigation science. Train farmers and Conduct research into climate, water and agriculture related issues.
7. Rice Farmers Association (APEX Farmers Group)	2	Members are mainly into rice production in Bontanga.
8. Savannah Agricultural Research Institute (SARI)	2	Train rice farmers on appropriate agronomic practices. Introduce rice varieties to farmers and conduct climate and agriculture related research.
9. Agriculture and Development Non-Governmental Organization (IFDC and JICA)	2	Train and support farmers with inputs and advices that will promote local food production including rice production
Total	15

The practitioners were purposefully selected based on their principal role (civil society representatives, policy and decision makers, researchers and farmer representatives) and expertise in climate, water and farming. The conversation centered on five thematic areas: (i) perception of the climate-water-food production problem in northern Ghana; (ii) current actions taking by farmers and organizations to manage these problems; (iii) farmers’ hydro-climatic informational needs and use; (iv) the value of seasonal climate forecast; and (v) the feasibility of hydro-climatic EVO to ameliorate the challenges. Each conversation lasted for about one hour and the information was recorded digitally and captured in a field notebook.

c. Focus Group Discussions

To collect information about the challenges farmers experienced through the existing governance arrangements, water management practices, information management and decision-making, we organized seven Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) with farmers who were engaged in irrigated and/or rainfed rice farming within the Kumbungu District. FGDs were held at the farm, community and scheme levels. Discussions at the farm level focused on the perception of farmers on problems of the climate-water-food production nexus and steps taken to manage them. In addition, discussions revolved around the hydro-climatic informational needs of farmers.

To broaden the scope, the FGDs organized at the community level included rice farmers, traditional leaders, political representatives and women.This allowed us to discuss the place of hydroclimatic information in their farming cycle, as well as the ways in which governance arrangements and decision-making processes at the community and farm level worked. At the scheme level, similar questions were asked to inquire on the activities of rice farmers within the Bontanga Irrigation Scheme about governance, water management and how that impacted decision-making. Participants were leaders of farmer associations, the manager and representatives of committees (see table Table 2).

Table 2 Actor groups for Focus Group Discussion.

Target group	Definitions	Characteristics of the FGD
Rice Farmers	Farmers who cultivate rice under rainfed or irrigated farming systems or both	-FGD with rainfed rice farmers -FGD with irrigated rice farmers
Community Leaders	Individuals with leadership authority established by written or unwritten laws within the community.	-FGD with Traditional leaders -FGD with local political leaders -FGD with leaders of independent organization within the community
Water Managers	Individuals responsible for production, process and delivery of water for use on rice farms.	-FGD with farm level actors such as water bailiffs, carnal supervisors under irrigated rice production system
Leadership of the scheme	Public servants leading operations under within the scheme as wells as committees	-FGD with scheme lead, engineer, financial manager, leaders of farmer associations and committees

3.2 Data analysis

Literature and available Documents were analysed in two stages; we first scanned existing literature and documents for relevant information from empirical and theoretical perspectives. Next was a synthesis of information Secondly, we thoroughly examined them by reading, extracting and synthesising key information from the selected literature and documents; background information of rice farmers as well as insight into the socio-ecological settings of rice production systems in Northern Ghana. It also provided supplementary research data on the importance of rice in the economy of Ghana, historical and current climatic variability and change in Northern Ghana as well as model projections of these changes and their undesirable impact on farmers was established (see Section 4.1a). In addition, arrangement and rules governing rice farmers’ activities in Northern Ghana and the management framework of the irrigation schemes including existing hydro-climatic information systems and their value to rice farming was obtained via literature and document analysis (Section 4.1b).

Using Atlas.ti (Hwang, 2008), we used open-coding methods and clustered the topics of the several themes. The analysis was aimed at first verifying our findings from the literature and document analysis to corroborate evidences and secondly to probe further on arising issues such as practical challenges of climate variability and change for farmers and the potential value of hydro-climatic information systems for farmers’ adaptive decision making.

Focus Group Discussions were similarly transcribed and processed through thematic analysis. The analysis provided information on the rules of engagement and decision making among rice farmers, their knowledge of existing hydro-climatic information services, information access and utilization, challenges of institutional linkage and information exchange at farm level (see Section 4.1b and 4.2).

4 Results

The section outlines the results of the diagnostic analysis (Section 4.1), and the key challenges reported by farmers (Section 4.2).

4.1 Diagnostic analysis of the socio-ecological system

To analyze the current setting, we focus on rice farmers in Northern Ghana (Fig. 2). We specifically explore the socio-ecological aspects of climate change impacts on crop productivity (i.e. yield per unit area) and not 'food production', as this is dependent on many other factors than climate change, such as quality of land, infrastructure investment, available finance, international trade policy, and food market. We analyze this case region by splitting it in two dimensions; the biophysical factors (climate and water) and socio-institutional (actors, rules, practices, decision-making) parameters framing the activities of rice farmers within the study area.

Fig. 2 Northern sector of Ghana in a black rectangle (A) relative to Africa showing Ghana (B).

4.1.1 Biophysical context

From the literature analysis and interviews, the major The biophysical issues in the case area are mapped in Fig. 3. The main issue in the North of Ghana (∼97,702 km² land area) is climate variability which significantly impacts agricultural productivity. Development of the agricultural sector in this region is affected by the climatic conditions, such as the long dry season of about six to seven months followed by five-month rainy season (April/May to September/October) usually characterized by sporadic droughts and/or floods (Amikuzino and Donkoh, 2012; Barry et al., 2005). Temperatures in the region are higher compared to those in the southern part of the country. The lowest maximum temperatures are around 26 °C mostly recorded in August and highest temperatures are between 40–42 °C recorded in March or April (Mdemu, 2008). The climate system of Northern Ghana is characterized by distinctive inter-annual and inter-decadal variability in precipitation and temperature(Nyadzi, 2016). The area is associated with an erratic unimodal rainfall of an annual sum between 400 and 1200 mm. Changes in the duration of the rainy season have shortened the length of the growing season, delaying the onset of planting season in most cases, while dry season and rainy season temperatures have increased by about 1 °C and 2 °C respectively (Acquah, 2011; Kunstmann and Jung, 2005).

Fig. 3 Analysis of the main biophysical issues in Northern Ghana (Fieldwork 2017).

The northern part of Ghana experiences the greatest rainfall variations and this is projected to increase along with increasing temperature (2.1–2.4 °C) from 2010 to 2050 (Owusu and Waylen, 2009). According to Kankam-Yeboah et al., (2011), high temperatures that were previously recorded in March (peak of the dry season) are now being recorded also in January. In addition, the onset of the rainy season has become more difficult to predict. They also indicated that in the past, the rainy season started in April and ended around late September or early October. However, in recent times, the rainy season starts in June or July with extreme heavy rainfall in September or October.

These outcomes indicate a potential increase in the intensity and frequency of extreme events, such as droughts and floods and a consequential reduction in the crop growing period with serious implications for crop yields and food security (Abdul-Rahaman and Owusu-Sekyere, 2017a,b; Kasei et al. 2014). Current occurrences and long-term climate patterns create future uncertainties with serious implications for climate prediction and agricultural productivity. As re-iterated by Antwi-Agyei et al., (2012), climate variability, manifested at different time scales and in different ways will significantly impact the agricultural sector of Northern Ghana.

In addition, large temporal and spatial rainfall variability results in high variability in river flow. As results, most rivers flow for only a few months a year with limited or no flow during the rest of the year (Amisigo and Van De Giesen, 2005). The combination of climate change, intensive land use, population growth and economic development results in increased water demand and more pressure on the available water resources (Stanturf et al., 2011). To cope with climate variability hydraulic infrastructure such as small-scale reservoirs and large scale irrigation systems have been constructed mainly for agricultural purposes (Faulkner et al., 2008; Amisigo et al., 2015).

Uncertainties related to climate variability is a major challenge for both rain-fed and irrigated farmers and water managers because to productively manage their activities, critical climate sensitive decisions have to be taken months ahead of a season (Asante and Amuakwa-Mensah, 2014). Sustainability of rain-fed farming systems becomes a challenge with severe impacts on crop yields (Fosu-Mensah et al., 2012; Acquah, 2011). Not only does this affect rain-fed farming, it also has a major toll on irrigation schemes. Water levels in the dry season are low making it difficult to irrigate farmlands limiting production. Farmers have reported re-sowing of seeds due to poor germination following delay in rains, which increases their cost of production. Irrigation water managers rely on river discharge to decide the frequency, quantity and method of water distribution. The uncertainty associated with predicting seasonal rains and water availability puts farmers in a dilemma when key farming decisions are to be made (Ndamani and Watanabe, 2013).

In the face of these challenges, rice is a central crop as it accounts for 15% of agricultural output and 45% of the total area used in cereal grain production in Ghana (Stanturf et al., 2011). Rice is produced under irrigation, rain-fed lowland and rain-fed upland systems (CSIR-SARI, 2011). Studies on climate change project increasing temperatures and declining rainfall, resulting in reduced rice production (e.g. Asante and Amuakwa-Mensah, 2014). In a study carried out by Knox et al. (2012) rice is projected to experience the most variations of all studied crops, since water scarcity, and over reliance on unpredictable rainfall are the major factors affecting rice production in Northern Ghana (Kranjac-Berisavljevic et al., 2003).

4.1.2 Socio-institutional context

The North of Ghana is divided into three administrative regions: Upper East, Upper West and Northern Regions (Fig. 2). The majority of this area is located in the Tropical Guinea Savannah zone, with small parts (extreme north of the upper east and west regions) sharing border with Burkina Faso in the Sudan Savanna. The north of Ghana is the poorest part of the country yet recent reports indicate that about 80% of the economically active population in this part of Ghana engages in agriculture, producing millet, guinea-corn, rice, maize, groundnut, beans, and sorghum with some few others producing dry season tomatoes and onions. Livestock and poultry production are also common in the region (GSS, 2013). The north of Ghana is generally endowed with about 20 small and large irrigation schemes. Rice farming periods and practices are similar across the three regions, even though there are individual preferences for different varieties depending on farmer’s own aim of farming (GIDA, 2016, 2011).

Governance in Ghana is characterized by two main governance arrangements. These are traditional and formal arrangements. Formal governance arrangements have been established by legal and structural definitions captured in the constitution and other working documents dependent on the context. Traditional governance arrangements, although ‘loosely’ framed are embedded in local and community culture expressed in the form of rules, norms and beliefs (see also Myers and Fridy, 2017). In Northern Ghana, the activities of rice farmers are informed by both governance arrangements (Nanedo et al., 2014).

Our engagements revealed that the Ghana Irrigation Development Authority, has the mandate of developing and managing irrigation infrastructure (see also Namara et al., 2011). The Ghana Meteorological Agency, Water Resource Commission and the Center for Scientific and Industrial Research are also collaborative institutions in meeting information, water security and advice on crop productivity respectively (see also Braimah et al., 2014; Nanedo et al., 2014). The Participatory Irrigation Management Strategy (Namara et al., 2011), adopted in the 1990s has served as the framework for a more decentralized management of Irrigation Schemes. At the scheme level, the manager is responsible for the daily operations of the scheme and thus engages farmers and leadership of farmer associations in the drafting of schedules and assigning of roles for effective water management for irrigation purposes. Water is thus discharged through canals onto farmlands within different laterals guided by agreed schedules. The manager also coordinates decisions and information exchange amongst all actors as part of steps to adapt to changing conditions experienced.

Rainfed rice farmers operating within communities are also guided by traditional governance arrangements aimed at ensuring effective engagement and resource use. These are in the form of rules and procedures which community members are expected to adhere to or live by. For example, Chiefs are custodians of lands and thus farmers who do not have family lands would have to consult the leadership for land for farming activities. Water is also perceived as a communal resource and hence farmers are expected to consider the interest of other users in the quest to meet their water needs. Chiefs who are thus seen to have the highest authority within the community legally enforce communal decisions. Farmers must thus adhere to agreed rules even if it does not satisfy their needs.

In both systems, we found the existing governance arrangements to be faced with multiple challenges limiting stakeholder interaction and information exchange. For instance, information provision through Chief are usually aimed at general community concerns and activities rather than agriculture information required for farm decision-making. Most farmers thus took the initiative of obtaining information from other farmers or platforms such as radio and mobile telecommunication service operators involved in related information provision (See also Al-Hassan et al., 2013). Community representatives such as Assemblymen are not instrumental in providing relevant farm related information. Within the irrigation scheme, power play and gender imbalance results in bias in engagement. Results of the focus group discussions show that access to water was mostly characterized by power play especially during the dry season as only a few laterals upland could access water for irrigation from the dam. Thus, lands in the upland are allocated to cronies of the irrigation manager, chiefs and heads of committees. Women are also less represented and hence limited in accessing land and obtaining relevant information related to farm activities. Governance arrangements within the scheme also put the Scheme manager in charge of information directly relevant for scheme operations. In some contexts, farmers receive delayed information relevant for decision-making due to inactivity on the side of leadership. Interviews and FGDs pointed to weak institutional collaborations especially on information provision and use (see also Nugent, 2000). A situation largely attributable to negligence, poor leadership, weak communication links, inadequate resources and logistical challenges. For example, the Ghana Meteorological Agency provides seasonal climate information only at the start of the season and mostly to radio stations and irrigation scheme managers with little contact with farmers themselves. However, wherever these contacts exist they are inconsistent and generally decrease over the season. Private operators providing hydro-climatic information have limited collaboration with the public sector. Thus, ESOKO, MTN and Vodafone only interact with farmers without consideration of existing programmes and how their interventions could be embedded in them. Braimah et al. (2014) allude to complex local socio-political issues that affect relationships within irrigation schemes. These range from power play to gender inequalities affecting knowledge exchange and resource management.

Interviews also revealed that farmers take a number of key decisions in managing changes in climatic conditions and how they affect water availability and food production. These include when and how to prepare farmlands, when, what and how to plant, perform weed control, apply fertilizer and harvest. Farmers adapt their decisions considering outcomes and what is deemed appropriate in a given context (see also Ndamani and Watanabe, 2013). Under irrigated rice farming, water managers lead the decision process with the design of an irrigation schedule. Farmers however are responsible for specific decisions on their farms. Under rain-fed systems, the farmer leads the risk management process by exploring how experience from the previous season and new knowledge or information on weather inter alia, water availability in their decision-making (see also Abdul-Razak and Kruse, 2017). The survey revealed that adaptive farm decisions of farmers are generally based on information generated from indigenous and scientific forecasts. While farmers were quick to acknowledge the limitations in their personal forecast they however considered it better for decision making than the scientific forecast provided by Ghana Meteorological Agency as this was perceived to be generic and not locally specific to their community and needs (See also Gwenzi et al., 2016; Zuma-Netshiukhwi et al., 2013) Information systems within the study area were identified to provide scientific forecast information whereas indigenous forecasts were tied to farmers observation matched with experience. For example, farmers are able predict the beginning of the wet season and when to prepare their fields for planting (Ofori-Sarpong, 2001). They base their predictions on a set of indicators, each of which has different levels of reliability. The flowering of the shea nut tree, migratory patterns of birds and position of the constellation Pleiades all help farmers determine when the rainy season is due (Benneh, 1970). They are able to predict date of seasonal rainfall onset and cessation, and whether the season will receive above, below and normal rainfall. Also, they are able to make daily weather predictions of low, medium and high rainfall (Frimpong, 2013). In the next section, the paper presents findings on information systems and how they enable hydro-climatic information access and use.

4.2 Hydro-climatic information access and use in rice farming systems in Northern Ghana

The role of hydro-climatic information in knowledge creation, improved adaptation and improved agricultural production has been highlighted in different studies and initiatives (Sam and Dzandu, 2016; Owolade and Kayode, 2012). For example, in 2014 and 2015, the Ghana Meteorological Agency (GMet, 2016) in collaboration with the CGIAR and ESOKO provided weather and seasonal climate information via conventional SMS to farmers in two piloted communities (Doggoh and Bompari) in northern Ghana (ESOKO, 2016). Other media such as radio and television programs are also used to provide relevant information in English and local languages (i.e. Dagbanli, Frafra, Gonja, Kasem etc.).

In spite of these interventions, there are still challenges in information access and interpretation by farmers who are illiterates and can’t read text and even literate farmers lack the necessary skills to understand technical information because of the format in which they are presented. Also, the extent to which those who could read adopt the information and new knowledge received is considerably questionable (see also Sam and Dzandu, 2016). Our inventory of existing ICT and media platforms in Ghana as shown in Table 1 reveals some potential information transfer models, namely radio, mobile apps, websites and conventional phone-based services (e.g. recorded voice messages and SMS texts for more literate farmers). Other non-ICT means of information transfer include moving vans, extension officers, water managers and head of farmer organizations who disseminate pertinent information to farmers. Table 3 provides an assessment of strengths and limitations of the main communication tools regarding their utilization in hydro-climatic information services delivery in northern Ghana.

Table 3 Overview of key strengths and limitations of main media platforms in hydro-climatic information services in Ghana.

Communication tool	Strengths	Limitations
Radio services	- Multiple Agro-focused radio stations exists in Northern Ghana (e.g. Radio Tongu, Simli Radio etc.) ^a - Operate at the suitable spatial level/coverage and are powerful communication tools with the potential to benefit agricultural extension (Chapman et al., 2003) - Most radio operators offer services in multiple local languages such as Dagbani, Mampelle, Frafra, Waali and Dagaare which are important for the Northern Ghana context - Farmers generally listen to local radio on frequent basis and this makes it easier to reach targeted farmers with hydro-climatic information	- Radio services offer few mechanisms for meaningful interactions with farmers. - Information reaching farmers through radio could be adulterated, as there might be difficulties in the translation of some terms into local dialects. - This will hinder information exchange between data users (farmers) and researchers of the hydro-climatic-EVO.
Mobile apps	- Powerful visualization capabilities in mobile apps help to overcome the challenge of limited literacy rate in rural communities (Vitos et al., 2013). - Our experience with developing a prototype offline mobile-app to collect farmers’ short-term weather predictions in northern(on-going project) ^b makes us convinced that mobile apps have great potential in reaching out to rural illiterate farmers.	- Many rural communities in Northern Ghana do not have access to internet to use online mobile apps. - Many farmers in Northern Ghana do not own smartphones. - Many of the farmers are ICT phobia largely because of language and literacy barrier.
Conventional phone services	- High penetration of mobile phones in rural Ghana. Farmers already use phones for calls and the elite farmers use it for text messaging families, friends and businesses (infoDev, 2014). - Existing phone services such as pre-recorded audio phone messages for illiterate farmers and SMS to literate farmers are currently operated in Northern Ghana e.g. FARM Radio and ESOKO (FARM Radio International, 2014; Esoko, 2016). This allows for integration of hydro-climatic information services into those existing services and business models, which may add to sustainability of research output.	- Most existing phone-based services are not free and this raises the issue of information asymmetry where only higher-income farmer groups can afford and access hydro-climatic information. - SMS-message fatigue is occurring among literate farmers as the cheapest phone services come with advertisement-messages
Website	- Websites that provides climatic information services exist in Ghana (GMET,2016) - They are rather quick to develop and supports some level of interactions.	- Web-based services often face the challenge of sustaining users to visit on a frequent basis. - They offer limited opportunity for interactions - Limited internet access is also a major challenge in many rural communities. - Farmers will find it difficult to read and interpret information by themselves because of limited literacy
Other non-ICT models ^c	- Non-ICT media are effective as farmers are able to have a face-to-face interaction with information providers where demonstrations are carried out for better understanding of concepts. - Non-ICT models include formal and informal periodic meetings where farmers interact and pass on relevant information to each other within both the irrigation scheme and communities. - Mobile Vans from Information Services Department readily provide information to farmers in communities.	- These models are not responsive enough for daily hydro-climatic information exchange. - Data providers do not have direct interaction with users and information transfer may take several days when moving vans are used. - Moving vans do not create a platform for questions or further clarifications and farmers may miss relevant information. - Female farmers are mostly not invited to attend such meetings and on few occasions when they are present, they are unable to express their opinion because of the male dominant conversation. - Farmers held sentiments and affluence may also play a role in making it more difficult for information access.

(Fieldwork 2017).

a http://gcrn.org.gh/dev/?p=251.

b http://https://uclexcites.wordpress.com/2018/05/01/the-role-of-sapelli-in-collecting-indigenous-weather-climate-forecast-data/.

c Non-ICT models include formal and informal periodic meetings where farmers interact and pass on relevant information to each other where information provider is often the irrigation water manager, head of farmer organization and extension officers. Another model is moving vans from the ministries and departments uses megaphones for loud announcements vital for farmers use.

5 Discussions

This study set out with the aim of diagnosing how socio-ecological settings of rice farmers in Northern Ghana could affect the design and operationalisation of a hydro-climatic EVO. In this section, we draw on the insights from our diagnostic analysis to outline the characteristics of our hydro-climatic EVO. The design aims to overcome the identified challenges and capitalize on opportunities identified in section 4.2. The framework consists of two main parts: the structural elements of the framework and the processes through which it operates. We discuss the process of designing the EVO through the lens of the four dimensions of RI.

5.1 Design features: description of the structural elements

Our diagnostics resulted in different hydro-climatic information needs, challenges and opportunities for an EVO. We propose a hydro-climatic EVO (Fig. 4) consisting of three major elements; (i) data sources, (ii) data handling processes, (iii) platform for information and data exchange.

Fig. 4 Fundamental Architecture of hydro-climatic EVO.

(i) Data sources

Data will be sourced from two main knowledge systems; indigenous and scientific knowledge systems (see Fig. 4).

First, as explained earlier, Ghanaian farmers use indigenous ecological knowledge to understand weather and climate patterns in order to make decisions about crop and irrigation cycles (Frimpong, 2013). Prior to every season the EVO will collect farmers’ seasonal forecast of rainfall onset and cessation date and, rainfall amount and degree of temperature forecast expressed on a nominal scale of below, normal or above normal. Also within the season, the EVO will collect farmers’ twenty- four (24) hours weather forecast of low, medium or high rain.

Second, seasonal temperature and rainfall data from European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF-S4) seasonal forecasts system 4 (Molteni et al., 2011) will be analyzed to also provide same seasonal climate information on rainfall onset and cessation date, amount of rainfall and degree of temperature also expressed in a nominal scale of below, normal and above normal. ECMWF-S4 is a state-of-the-art seasonal ensemble climate model that provides seasonal climate forecast on daily timescale into seven months ahead of time. The daily nature of the data will allow us to estimate daily rainfall amount of either low, medium and high.

(ii) Data handling processes

The second element of the framework is the data handling process where indigenous and scientific data are collected, processed, analyzed, and visualized. The collection of data will be partly automated. The hydro-climatic-EVO will offer a platform where farmers can regularly upload their seasonal climate and daily weather forecast information. These indigenous forecast information from farmers will be complemented with those from scientific forecast.

There are clear differences and limitations of both data sources. However, seasonal information such as rainfall onset and cessation date, above, below and normal rainfall generated from the analysis of the ECMWF-S4 temperature and rainfall data will be used to complement those predicted by farmers using their indigenous knowledge. In a similar way daily weather information such as low, medium and high rainfall predicted by farmers will complement information estimated from the daily data from ECMWF-S4 or any other weather model. There is potentially great value in combining both sources of data. For example, both data sources have inherent value that will complement the weakness exhibited by each without substituting one for the other and building on their respective strengths. The question that remains is whether information from both sources will be provided independently or combined. Developing a comprehensive approach to either independently present scientific and indigenous forecast information or harmonize them for actionability remained to be further explored in our next study.

(iii) Information exchange for adaptive farm decision making

The hydro-climatic EVO has additional features that distinguish it from other EVOs. It offers a participatory opportunity to actively engage end-users to co-create actionable knowledge. Farmers can share their forecast information and receive tangible information for their adaptive farm decision-making. For example seasonal climate information such as onset and cessation date, rainfall amount (be it above, normal or below normal) and seasonal dam water levels, and the degree of temperature per season will support:

(i)	Pre-season decisions: such as when to buy seeds and which variety to buy, irrigation land size allocation and Labour size, which weedicide, pesticide and fertilizer to buy.

(ii)	Land preparation decisions: when to clear land, when to harrow and plough,

(iii)

Planting decisions: when to nurse, transplant and which planting method to adopt and

(iv)	Harvesting decision: when to harvest and by which method.

On the other hand daily weather information (be it yes/no rain, low, medium or high rainfall) received by farmers will support farm decisions such as

(i)	when to fertilie,

(ii)	when to apply weedicides and pesticides and

(iii)

when to carry out supplementary irrigation.

Details of information need and decision-making by rice farmers are discussed by Nyamekye et al. (2018) and Nyadzi et al., (2018). The EVO offers tailor made information that generate actionable knowledge to for decision making at different stages of farming. The interface of the Hydro-climatic EVO will be carefully designed with close collaboration with end-users to ensure effective data and information exchange with a particular focus on non-literate users with little or no prior ICT experience. The hydro-climatic EVO therefore envisages opportunities for learning and becoming an integral part of rice production systems in the region.

5.2 Hydro-climatic EVO: addressing challenges in existing information systems

The main challenges of existing information systems and what our EVO seek to do differently is summarized in Table 4. Challenges with existing systems that limit their usefulness include user unfriendliness of the system, inaccuracies of forecast information, relevance of information, managing user expectation and weak collaborations.

Table 4 Identified challenges in existing information systems and the way forward.

Challenges	Existing systems	What hydro-climatic EVO must do differently
User unfriendliness	Hydro-climatic information accessed by farmers is difficult to interpret especially by the illiterate farmer population, as farmers are not able to interact with the system. This limits the application of new knowledge.	To maintain its purpose and functionality, a Hydro-climatic-EVO must provide an interactive interface in locally adaptable language. The interface must adopt a participatory process considerate of technical, social and cultural dimensions.
Inaccuracies of forecast information	Existing climate and weather forecast possess poor skills and are very coarse in resolution. Information are often not location-specific and therefore farmers do not find them useful.	We use data from state-of-the-art ensemble forecast model ECMWF-S4 that have better skills (accuracy) for West Africa (Molteni et al., 2011). The hydro-climatic-EVO will provide downscaled information with higher resolution, making it more relevant for local communities. The scientific forecast will be complemented with farmers’ indigenous forecast that is locally specific.
Relevance of information	Forecast information are not specific to the exact needs of the farmers. Climate sensitive information such as onset and cessation dates, amount and frequency of rain etc. are untimely provided for decision making.	The hydro-climatic-EVO will provide tailor made water and climate sensitive information and further advice farmers on which decision is suitable based on the provided information. It is possible to provide this information seven (7) months into the future especially before the onset of the season (Molteni et al., 2011).
Managing User expectation	Information provided has failed in some instances thereby dwindling farmer confidence in existing systems. This is also due to a lack of direct engagement of users of information in the data gathering, projection and analysis stages before information is disseminated. This breaches trust and confidence in information received.	The design of the Hydro-climatic-EVO adopts an action research approach and hence engages end users as early as the design stage. Therefore, farmers are exposed to the limitations of the system and gives a better understanding of what is possible in the end.
Weak collaboration	Existing hydro-climatic information systems adopt a top-down approach where scientists and other technical personnel are the drivers and farmers end users. Little or no attention is given to farmers’ involvement and participation in the knowledge creation process. Results of the focus group discussion show that farmers have good knowledge of their own environment and when this is coupled with scientific knowledge, quality of forecast information could be improved.	Hydro-climatic-EVO encourages participation from the point of idea conceptualisation, design and creation. The system will be co-produced by scientists, farmers and other key stakeholders. Both indigenous and scientific knowledge systems are adopted and applied. Aside regular workshops and meetings to discuss opinions and ideas from both sides, the hydro-climatic-EVO presents a platform where knowledge and information are continuously exchanged. This creates a deep sense of ownership amongst all stakeholders.

5.3 Design process: hydro-climatic EVO as responsible innovation

We build on the responsible innovation framework (Stilgoe et al., 2013) to assess the initial steps taken in the process of building a hydro-climatic EVO, and to identify the challenges ahead. For each cardinal principle, we raised some salient questions that seek to guide the development and implementation.

(i) Anticipation

Anticipation involves “systematic thinking aimed at increasing resilience, while revealing new opportunities for innovation and the shaping of agendas for socially-robust risk research” (Stilgoe et al., 2013). This relates to forecasting, and imagining possible and desirable futures, but also to the ‘ethics of promising’. This dimension of the RI framework makes us ask ‘what if…?’ questions (Ravetz, 1997) to expose the various contingencies associated with the development of the hydro-climatic-EVO. From its conception, the envisaged hydro-climatic-EVO anticipates the future by considering the potential impacts of climate variability and change on farmers’ daily and seasonal farm decision making. Rather than optimizing for the most likely future scenario, the hydro-climatic-EVO accounts for the associated uncertainty by trying to make variability in water availability manageable for different farming purposes. Climate variability and change is only one of the potentially relevant future developments. Equally important is the unintended consequences which could be the future development of farming in the region, in terms of economic prospects and farmers’ aspirations. Will farmers move out of agriculture into other occupations if possible, or do they see a future for themselves and their children that will motivate them to further improve their farmer system and embrace new technologies such as an EVO? The approach taken to ensure inclusiveness through user-centered design (see below) creates some challenges for the ‘ethics’ of promising. Developing features that are most relevant to users implies that these may be quite specific and/or novel, making it uncertain to what degree the innovation will be able to deliver on the promised usefulness of the EVO.

(ii) Reflexivity

Reflexivity means “holding a mirror up to one’s own activities, commitments and assumptions, being aware of the limits of knowledge and being mindful that a particular framing of an issue may not be universally held” (Stilgoe et al., 2013). It is about questioning the value systems and theories that shape science, innovation and their governance. The envisaged hydro-climatic-EVO will be developed through interdisciplinary collaboration, where the absence of shared standard ways of operating leads to mutual questioning and thus some form of reflexivity. This reflexivity prevents the natural scientists to retreat into sole modelling, and prevents the social scientists to retreat into sole analysis of social processes. Reflexivity also requires carefulness not to violate the social and cultural ethics of the society in which the project is carried out, particularly because different countries and vulnerable populations are involved. This was vital especially during our interaction with farmers, for example regarding their traditional knowledge and regular engagement for information exchange. A continuous challenge is to remain reflexive about assumptions made in building the EVO, and to what extent these are aligned with the users’ context. Thus the need for continuous scrutiny of project activities and dealing with every farmer and situation distinctively.

(iii) Inclusion

The user-centered design framework (Zulkafli et al., 2017) adopted for the development of the hydro-climatic EVO strongly emphasizes inclusion. Various actors and institutions were actively involved in the early development process, with particular attention paid to potential end-users. The engagement of different actors on the project especially during regular workshops and trainings is expected to play a pivotal role in creating a sense of ownership among the farmers and other actors (public and private sector agencies, local leaders and chiefs). A clear example of inclusiveness is the involvement of both rainfed and irrigated rice farmers on the project. Each of these farmer types has its own need, which must be met. Also the reliance on both scientific and indigenous data and knowledge systems to generate actionable knowledge enhances the inclusiveness of hydro-climatic EVO. Inclusion is never perfect, however, and pragmatic choices have an impact. The particular study area receives considerable attention from development actors, partly because of its proximity to the city of Tamale and its university. Farmers with higher literacy levels, fluency in English, and familiarity with ICT are easier to involve in e.g. local smartphone-based data gathering.

(iv) Responsiveness

Responsiveness is the capacity to “change shape or direction in response to stakeholders, public values, and changing circumstances” (Stilgoe et al., 2013). Funded by a university programme (INREF ¹ ) that values “research for development”, our hydro-climatic-EVO project has a good starting point for achieving responsiveness. The user-centered design approach to developing the EVO emphasizes the importance of the user context as a starting point – in terms of livelihoods, culture and decision-making. A choice that was made early in the project to include the practice of rainfed farming as well as irrigated farming, was responsive to the importance of rainfed farming for large parts of the rural population, in particular the poorer sectors. The design and structure of the hydro-climatic-EVO aims to meet the needs of users and remain flexible enough to respond to future changes in circumstances, e.g. new knowledge and emerging perspectives, new technical possibilities or demands, as well as changes in livelihoods or cultural values. Being a university-led project with a limited period (5 years) creates some challenges for responsiveness as well. What about responding to changes when paid project members are no longer around? Finally, the responsiveness to stakeholder and public values might be challenged by the responsiveness to academic values and incentives, which prioritize modeling, analysis and publication over stakeholder engagement and practical application. This limitation is therefore recognized and in cases where they emerged efforts must be put in place to amicably deal with them. For example, we seek to understand indigenous forecast techniques and develop methods to quantify them in order to harmonize them with scientific forecast derived from models.

6 Conclusion

The diagnostics study presented here offers a number of important insights that help to further refine and implement the hydro-climatic EVO. First, participatory design will create a sense of ownership among farmers. This is because, being actively involved from the design to production and implementation stages of the project is novel, and it increases the likelihood that the hydro-climatic information services developed will be useful for farmers. Secondly, the diagnostics provides in-depth appreciation of the socio-ecological conditions in which the EVO will operate. Thirdly, our reflection using the RI framework exposed key challenges, which the hydro-climaticEVO development process needs to deal with. Asking these questions, however, allowed us to discuss plausible solutions at an early stage in the design process.

One of the key challenge anticipated is the reliance on stakeholder participation throughout the project cycle. Farmers need incentives and motivation for continuous participation. In our case, we argue that both rainfed and irrigated farmers are challenged by climate variability and limited water availability and that urgent action is needed. The information services developed can help with improving their farm decision making in order to better cope with climate variability. However, it remains unclear how much time future users and other stakeholders are prepared to devote to the design process. Close monitoring is needed to find out if farmers feel that providing regular data and information is too time consuming. Limited commitment of users can potentially reduce data availability and quality. As a response we pay specific attention to openness and transparency in the design process, to allow participants to freely share their opinions and concerns. At the same time, researchers need to be proactive. They should be seen as and perceived to be serious with the process through their active engagement. In the context of decision-making, our reflections and findings present key challenges in terms of language, interpretation and usability. The knowledge co-creation and subsequent provision of actionable knowledge must align with literacy and user confidence in being able to easily relate to outputs.

Our approach and innovation possesses the potential to deal with the socio-ecological challenges imposed by climate variability and limited water availability. We argue that one of the most important drivers of success to our project will be the intensive collective interaction of scientist and farmers compelled by the structure and mechanism of the hydro-climatic EVO, in which scientist and other stakeholders think, plan and execute together from common ground. In addition, the responsible line of questioning will reduce the possible surprises and eventualities that may affect the EVO development. Important issues to follow-up on are the performance of indigenous and scientific forecast to meet the hydro-climatic information needs of rice farmers in Northern Ghana. Another issue from our diagnostics is how governance systems limit information flow and interpretation. For our follow up studies we aim to investigate governance arrangements and how these are enabling or inhibiting adaptive decision-making amongst farmers and water managers. Also in the next stage of this project is to find out what is the most preferred model of information exchange by rice farmers.

. The potential of including farmers in information collection through citizen science potentially bridges part of the gap between scientific and indigenous expertise and constitutes a novel contribution to the field of environmental observations.

We conclude that the socio-ecological conditions in Northern Ghana necessitate the development of an effective second generation hydro-climatic EVO as this potentially responds to the principles of RI expected to drive technological innovation to manage change in natural resource management. Finally, the proposed hydro-climatic EVO has potential for influencing adaptive farm decision making in Northern Ghana in spite of identifiable challenges. Using the RI framework has helped us to refine these challenges and offer concrete suggestions to improve both the design and implementation of the proposed platform in a responsible way.

Further reading

Agyekumhene, C., de Vries, J.R., van Paassen, A., Macnaghten, P., Schut, M., Bregt, A., 2018. Digital platforms for smallholder credit access: The mediation of trust for cooperation in maize value chain financing. NJAS Wagening. J. Life Sci this issue.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank to anonymous reviewers for their comments; their input has significantly improved the quality of the paper. This study is financially supported by the EVOCA project of Wageningen University & Research. We acknowledge the support of funding and supporting partners INREF, MDF and KITE. We confirm that the authors have no conflict of interest.

Notes

1 See http://www.wur.nl/en/Research-Results/Projects-and-programmes/INREF.htm