Protected cultivation as adaptive response in climate change policy: the case of smallholders in Northern Ghana

The Government of Ghana has launched the National Climate Change Policy (NCCP) which, inter alia, seeks to increase agricultural productivity through cutting-edge technologies. By focusing on Northern Ghana (most agricultural region of Ghana), this paper has found, among other things, that the provision of fertilizer subsidies is the major adaptive response provided by the government to smallholders. Notwithstanding the increase in fertilizer usage, crop yields and incomes for that matter continue to decrease. This paper problematizes a general tendency in the literature which promotes the use of fertilizer in affecting crop yields influenced by climate change. With the projection of the CSM coupled with the current plight of farmers in Northern Ghana, the provision of fertilizer subsidies does not appear to be an efficient adaptation mechanism to help farmers cope with climate change impacts. Through a survey, the paper has found that climate change has started to manifest in Northern Ghana in the form of erratic weather conditions resulting in reduced yields and incomes among smallholders.