Topic: Smallholder Farmers' Adaptation Practices to the Effects of Land Degradation on Livelihoods in Semi‐Arid Ghana

Abstract

ABSTRACT Although several environmental challenges exist globally, land degradation is the greatest threat and risk factor wedging human livelihoods. Despite widespread awareness of climate change, little empirical evidence exists on land degradation and its impacts on livelihoods in semi‐arid agroecological systems. This study investigates how smallholder farmers in semi‐arid Ghana use local knowledge to perceive and respond to land degradation and identifies the adaptation strategies employed and their implications for rural livelihoods and ecosystem services. The study employed a sequential mixed‐method design, combining geospatial analysis of Landsat satellite imagery (1990–2020) with household surveys, focus group discussions, and key informant interviews conducted in two ecologically vulnerable farming communities in semi‐arid Ghana. Guided by political ecology and the DPSIR (Drivers‐Pressure‐State‐Impact‐Response) framework, the approach enabled triangulation of remotely sensed land‐cover changes with farmers' perceptions and adaptation responses to land degradation. The findings reveal that settlement and bare areas have increased substantially, while wooded savannah areas have declined significantly. This discovery from the remote sensing analysis aligns with local actors' perceptions, who mostly perceive land degradation to be widespread (35.9%) and severe (45.2%). Farmers perceive these changing dynamics in land degradation as driven by proximate factors such as the expansion of cultivated and settlement areas, fuelwood collection, bushfires, and mining activities. The findings further point to significant declines in vital environmental services, including cereals, grains, wild edible fruits and vegetables, medicinal plants, and animal products that sustain livelihoods. In response to the weakening capacity of the landscape to continually provide livelihood services, farmers have implemented various reactive and anticipatory adaptation strategies, such as tree planting, the application of organic and inorganic fertilizers, reviving social taboos, reclaiming degraded lands, selling assets, and changing diets. It is imperative to promote climate‐smart agriculture, conservation agriculture, agroforestry, and regeneration of degraded areas to offer resilient opportunities for the local population.