Full Length Research Paper

Water storage for dry season vegetable farming as an adaptation to climate change in the upper east region of Ghana

Tekuni Nakuja¹, Daniel B. Sarpong¹, John K. M. Kuwornu¹* and Asante A. Felix²

¹Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness, P. O. Box LG 68, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra, Ghana.

²Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research, P. O. Box LG 74, University of Ghana, Legon-Accra, Ghana.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: jkuwornu@gmail.com  or jkuwornu@ug.edu.gh.

Accepted 10 November, 2011

 Abstract

The climate is changing in Ghana and farmers in the upper east region are adapting to the situation. The study analyzed determinants of farmers’ adaptive capacity in dry season vegetable farming using an Ordered Logit Model. The effects of adaptive capacities on farm income were also analyzed using log-linear production function. The empirical results reveal that sex, access to land near a reservoir site, engaging in off-farm business activity, access to credit and number of years of formal education determines farmers’ decision to venture into dry season vegetable farming. Besides, about 31.3% of farmers are of low adaptive capacity, 26.0% are of moderate adaptive capacity and 42.7% being high adaptive capacity. Further, adaptive capacity is explained by sex of respondent, number of years of formal education, household size, off-farm business activity and access to credit. Finally, the study also indicates that high adaptive capacity increases income from vegetable farming, and the results have implications for dry season food crop farming in developing countries.

Key words: Dry season vegetable farming, climate change, adaptive capacity, ordered logit model, Ghana.