Climate risks and agroforestry adoption in food crop farms: evidence from rural Ghana

Abstract

Agroforestry is increasingly promoted as an important climate adaptation and mitigation strategy, yet its adoption can be hampered or facilitated by farmers’ climate change experiences and perceived risks, as climate risks are associated with smallholder farmers’ agricultural innovation adoption decisions. In Ghana, agroforestry is promoted largely in cocoa and cashew-based farming systems, with limited knowledge of its adoption in food crop farming systems, where land degradation and farm expansion are high. Grounded in the protection motivation theory and the innovation diffusion theory, this study assesses the influence of floods, droughts, rising temperature and erratic rainfall on smallholder farmers’ willingness to adopt agroforestry in food crop farming systems in rural Ghana. Relying on a survey data from 535 smallholder farmers in four farming communities, we analyzed data using basic descriptive and logistic regression analyses. Results show that flood occurrence is the most crucial climate risk that influences farmers’ agroforestry adoption decision. Similarly, having access to climate information services significantly shapes agroforestry adoption decision. Considering that floods are recurrent with associated impacts on crop production, agroforestry can serve as a transformative and resilient-building agricultural innovation for vulnerable smallholder farmers, if farmers have improved access to climate information services. Targeted policies and interventions that enhance farmers’ knowledge of agroforestry and strengthen adaptive capacities through climate information services are highly recommended to guide informed adoption decisions in smallholder food crop farming systems.