How do land tenure arrangements influence adaptive responses of farmers? A study of crop farmers from semi-arid Ghana

• Published in: GeoJournal Vol. 87; no. 3; pp. 2255 - 2270
• Main Authors: Akugre, Francis A., Owusu, Kwadwo, Wrigley-Asante, Charlotte, Lawson, Elaine T.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01-06-2022; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Acquisition; Adaptation; Agricultural land; Agricultural practices; Agriculture; Agroforestry; Aridity; Climate change; Climate models; Crop rotation; Crops; Environmental impact; Environmental Management; Farmers; Geography; Households; Human Geography; Land acquisition; Land tenure; NGOs; Nongovernmental organizations; Occupancy; Planting date; Regression analysis; Regression models; Rotation; Security; Social Sciences; Ghana; Land tenure arrangements; Climate variability and change; Adaptive responses; Semi-arid Ghana; Land tenure rights
• ISSN: 0343-2521; 1572-9893
• DOI: 10.1007/s10708-021-10372-y

This study investigated land tenure potential to influence farmers’ adaptive responses to climate change. A quantitative approach was employed to determine how crop farmers’ farmland tenure arrangements influence their adaptive responses to climate change impacts in the Lawra District of semi-arid north western Ghana. Field data were gathered from 248 farming households between January and May, 2017 through a multi-stage sampling procedure. About 55.2%, 45.6%, 44.4%, 80.6% and 64.5% of the farmers adopted early maturing crop varieties, zai farming techniques, agroforestry, crop rotation and adjustment in planting dates respectively as adaptive choices to the impacts of climate change. Binary logistic regression models showed that farmland size, years of land occupancy or usage, method of land acquisition and perceived level of farmland tenure security significantly (
p
 ≤ 0.05) influenced farmers adaptive responses. We recommend that, government and non-governmental organizations should always consider farmers land tenure arrangements particularly regarding how they access or acquire their farmlands, the size of their farmlands and how they perceive the tenure security of those lands in the design and implementation of adaptation policies and programmes targeted at farmers so as to enhance sustainable adaptation.