This article explores climate change impacts on the mixed crop-livestock-tree systems in Northern Ghana, focusing on farmers’ responses and innovation needs. The impacts of climate change have reduced productivity, incomes, and food security, particularly for female farmers with limited resources. In response, farmers implement changes in crop, tree, livestock, and resource management. The paper identifies technical innovations and innovation bundles that can enhance resilience. Scaling these innovations requires multiple pathways including innovation platforms, partnerships, inclusive finance, and multistakeholder dialogues for broader adoption in sub-Saharan Africa.
In a new JAFSCD article, Unpacking innovation demands for climate-resilient mixed farming systems in sub-Saharan Africa: A case of Northern Ghana, authors Abena Ofosu, Thai Thi Minh, and Birhanu Zemadim Birhanu present findings from a qualitative study of mixed crop-livestock-tree farming systems in northern Ghana and farmer responses and innovation needs toward climate resilience. Corresponding author Abena Ofosu can be contacted at a.ofosu@cgiar.org or abenaofosu@gmail.com.
KEY FINDINGS
Farmers make diverse technical, managerial, and business changes in response to climate change impacts to lower their risks. The technical changes that combine indigenous and modern methods dominate farmer responses in the short term. These include changes in planting times, livestock management, and investment focus.
Managerial and business changes are more visible in the long term and have a higher failure cost for farmers. Managerial changes reflect farmer changes affecting the whole mixed farming system or a specific component, including cropping calendars, low farm intensification, and livestock adjustments. Business changes farmers make relate to shifting their investment focus and changing the scale of production. This includes a shift from long-maturing crops, like cereals and tubers, to short-maturing crops, like vegetables, and limiting production to one season to manage water scarcity, floods, or high market demand due to limited food supply.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR POLICY, PRACTICE, AND RESEARCH
This study has several implications for policy, development, and research.
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Tailoring interventions to diverse innovation needs is essential to support climate change adaptation strategies that sustainably manage trade-offs and synergies from farmers’ responses to climate change impacts in mixed farming systems.
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Operationalizing systemic approaches to support climate change adaptation should integrate multiple innovation scaling pathways to address mixed farming systems as a whole and profound climate change impacts.
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Further research should examine the mixed farming system practices under changing climatic conditions in other parts of sub-Sahara Africa to generate holistic insights into climate-resilient innovation bundles and recommendations for sustainable climate change adaptation.
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The impacts of climate change are affecting mixed farming systems in northern Ghana, with productivity declines in crops, livestock, and food security. What innovations support farmer adaptation for climate resilience? #ClimateChangeImpacts #SustainableFarming #Innovation @CGIAR Read the full @JAFSCD article for free: https://doi.org/10.5304/jafscd.2025.142.020
