Northern Ghana is a sub-humid area, combining areas with high population densities and high reported levels of land degradation with scarcely populated areas, which have low levels of land degradation. It consists of three administrative Regions: Upper East Region (densely populated, around Bolgatanga and Bawku in particular), Upper West Region (pockets of dense populationaround Wa, Nandom and Lawra-amidst low population densities), and Northern Region (mainly low population densities, with the exception of the area of the major town of Ghana's northern area: Tamale. The ICCD research was concentrated in the Bolgatanga area, but later extended to include the Nandom area in Upper West (as the start of a proposal to develop a Climate Change Preparedness Programme in Northern Ghana, financed by the University of Amsterdam). In the absence of useful longitudinal data at the village or household levels, it was decided to organise two expert meetings (workshops), in collaboration with the University of Development Studies at Tamale, the University of Ghana at Legon and a local NGO, CECIK. Most of the research activities for ICCD took place in the so-called Bolgatanga cell, an area between 10° and 11° North and 0° and 1° West. It covers the eastern part of Upper East Region and the northeastern part of Northern Region. Around 1960 the cell had an average population density of less than 50 inhabitants per square kilometre (although by that time, parts of the northern area already had densities far beyond that). On average, though, the density still could be regarded as 'low' compared to other drylands in the tropics. Currently, the Bolgatanga cell has between 0.7 and 0.8 million inhabitants, which means an average population density of between 60 and 70 inhabitants per square kilometre; high in relative terms. The part of the cell, which is located in the Upper East Region, has a very high population density with an average of 200 persons per square kilometre. 12.1 CROPS AND LAND USE DYNAMICS IN NORTHERN GHANA Crops that are relevant in the northern parts of Ghana include maize, sorghum, millets, rice, groundnuts and cotton. Most of the crop (harvest area) data recorded by the FAO for these crops for Ghana as a whole can be attributed to the northern areas. Maize has almost always been the most important grain crop of Ghana, in terms of hectarage (although more important in the centre-north areas and not in the upper-north areas). The maize area increased from between 200,000 and 300,000 ha in the 1960s to a level between 600,000 and 700,000 ha in the late 1990s. The year 1984 was an absolute peak year, with 720,000 ha. The years 1965 and 1978 were the lowest with less than 200,000 ha.

The effects of climate change on people’s livelihoods are perceived differently across various localities. It is imperative to examine how farmers understand the effects of climate change on their livelihoods. Their viewpoints can help create strategies for responding to climate and ecosystem changes in an appropriate and practical manner. Such perceptions are insufficiently understood in theWa West District of the Upper West Region of Ghana, despite the increasing frequency and magnitude of climate change’s effects. This paper first examines farmers’ perceptions about climate change in their communities in relation to available, conventional climate information. It also assesses farmers’ livelihood activities during both the wet and dry seasons in the district and discusses the area’s proneness to floods, droughts, and other types of climate change phenomena. This assessment reveals the challenges faced by the farmers in the study area and the opportunities to enhance their livelihoods.

This study seeks to explore stakeholders’ perceptions, causes, and effects of extreme climatic events, such as droughts and floods, in the Wa West District of Ghana’s Upper West Region. A multi-stage sampling procedure is used to select 184 respondents. Data collection methods include individual questionnaire administration, focus group discussions, and a stakeholders’ forum in the Wa West District Assembly. While frequencies are used to show respondents’ perceptions of the severity of climate change effects, a treatmenteffect model is used to determine the factors influencing farmers’ choices of on-farm coping strategies over off-farm activities in both periods of drought and flood. Findings are the following: farmers perceive that climate change is real and has severe consequences. Consequently, they resort to both on-farm and off-farm strategies to cope with the effects of climate change. While men mostly adopt the former, women adopt the latter. Both strategies are, however, not viable for taking them out of poverty, though offfarm activities are more effective. Education and extension services are other important factors influencing the choice of coping strategies as well as farmers’ welfare. Farmers must be supported with more viable income-earning activities, ones that can take them out of poverty. Women should be given priority. Access to education and extension services must also be stepped up to facilitate the adoption of the coping strategies and to increase welfare.

The consumption of rice has increased at an increasing rate globally with greater number of consumers deriving high calories through rice, hence the need for training of rice farmers to help increase its production to meet such high demand. This notion informed Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to collaborate with Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) and Government of Ghana (GoG) to train rice farmers in Ghana specifically in the Northern, Savana and North-east Regions. The ‘rain-fed lowland rice production technology training’, which was intended to increase rice production and profitability of rice farmers in the selected regions was carried out successfully within the project time frame. This study sought to evaluate the success of the training along two key objectives - ascertaining the extent to which the training has contributed to increase in rice yield (per hectare) of farmers in the selected areas and assessing the correlation between the components (land development and rice cultivation) of the training project on rice yield in the selected areas. The findings revealed the there was increase in rice farmers yield per hectare after the training and there was also a positive correlation between land development as a component of the training and rice cultivation in the selected area. The research recommend that MoFA should endeavour to replicate the JICA training on rain-fed lowland rice production technology across all rice production areas in Ghana.

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