Off-Farm Income Effect on Farmer Response to Climate Change in the Northern Region of Ghana

1. Introduction

Climate change continues to pose a threat to the lives and livelihood systems of many communities, especially rural communities. For many families, agriculture remain their primary source of food and income. Although the contribution of off-farm income to the total household income in the rural areas is increasingly recognized, not much is known about how it affects farmers’ response to the challenges posed by the ongoing climate change issue. Adaptation as a form of response to climate change is generally costly, largely revolving around adoption of new or improved technologies such as improved varieties and use of improved crop husbandry practices (Nabikolo, 2014; Kalungu et al., 2013). But it is a response that many poor farming households have embraced.

Families with higher incomes and adaptive capacities are better able to experiment with new technologies and management systems that might be expensive but offer higher productivity and resilience in the future (IFPRI, 2009). Adaptive capacity of farmers takes several key factors into consideration but more importantly income of the farmers. This is recognized in United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) grouping of the World (into Annex I and Non-Annex I Parties) in an effort to mitigate and adapt to the changing climate.

Many people believe that we cannot solve the climate change problem if we fail to address the issue of income inequality in the society. The proposition is that income of farmers of which off-farm income forms part, exerts great influence on their adaptation decisions. Off-farm income opportunities have been widely understood to be an important strategy for overcoming credit constraints faced by the rural households in many developing countries (Barrett, Reardon, & Webb, 2001). As about 40–45% of average household income come from non-farm sources (Bryceson & Jamal, 1997; Reardon, 1997).

Some empirical studies have been conducted regarding off-farm income and adoption in different parts of the World. Such studies include; impact of off-farm income on agriculture technology adoption intensity and productivity of maize farmers in Uganda (Diiro, 2009), impact of off-farm income on hybrid maize adoption and productivity of maize farmers in three ecological zones of Ghana (Addai, 2015) and some climate change related studies, including; Farmers’ perception on climate variability and its effects on adaptation strategies (Yildiz, FatihEhiakpor & Danso-abbeam, 2016), determinants of choice of climate change adaptation strategies (Mabe.et al) and the work on impact of climate change on agriculture and crop yield in northern Ghana (Amikuzuno, n.d.). This study seeks to assess the effect of off-farm income on maize farmers’ response to climate change in five selected communities in the Tolon district.