No abstract

Purpose – Climate change has emerged as an important theme in the current food security discourses, and although research on local people's adaptation to climate change is increasing, more research is needed to enable sharing of different coping strategies. This research can help policymakers in documenting effective coping strategies that helped to reduce negative impacts of climate change on farmers. The research therefore determined how farmers in rural Ghana use traditional knowledge to adapt to climate changes, and how well the local knowledge worked to enhance livelihoods. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – The study took place in three communities in Ghana. Sixty participants consisting 20 from each of the communities were recruited for the study. Data were collected through focus group discussions and semi-structured interview questions. SPSS software was used to analyse the data. The Mann-Whitney U-test was used to rank the strategies in enhancing livelihoods. Findings – Men's and women's understanding of what constitute climate change are similar – change in the rainfall amount and distribution. The coping strategies are working as hired labourers, engaging in irrigated farming, practicing of professions learned, rearing of animals, and petty trading. While the importance of the strategies to men's and women's is different, the strategies they adopted appeared to meet their household requirements. Originality/value – The study reveals that local creativities can help in meeting rural farmers' needs during the periods of climate change. Consequently, this research has value for development organisations supporting farmers to effectively use their indigenous knowledge during the periods of climate change.

This article reports on research into the impacts of micro-finance on gender roles, the extent to which socio-cultural factors influence these changes, and how such changes affect the wellbeing of rural Bogoso households in the Wassa West District of Ghana. Findings indicated that micro-finance has changed men's and women's control over decisions and resource allocations, which consequently affected financial responsibilities and the education of children, and largely contributed to household well-being. However, the small size of the loans was a limitation. The article concludes that socio-cultural factors may promote or inhibit wellbeing in rural households, and that micro-finance is not a sufficient tool in itself to promote women's and households' well-being. It is recommended that if rural people's well-being matters, collaborative efforts in the appraisal, monitoring, and evaluation of micro-finance initiatives, with the government providing leadership, are imperative.

Climate change has become a catch phrase in all disciplines, and research has shown that global temperature is increasing as a result of climate change. However, much has not been done on whether only analysis of rainfall data, without linking it to its impact on a particular case such as food production evidences climate change. This study therefore analysed merely rainfall data to determine whether it is an indication of climate change. Rainfall data was collected from 8 synoptic meteorological stations in Ghana for a 40-year period . The results have shown that average rainy days and average total rainfall for selected months for selected stations have varied which according to the working definition cannot be referred to as climate change. By using the normalised rainfall departure approach, rainfalls have also varied from year to another, but cannot also be referred to as climate change.The Sahelian drought might have extended to the northern Ghana because there were continuous negative rainfall departures (meteorological drought) in stations in the northern Ghana from 1966 to 1975. Based on the findings of this research, in order to conclude that climate in Ghana has changed using rainfall as a case, timeline research needs to be conducted which should focus on the impacts of rainfall on, for example, crop production and/or river discharge.

Community development, Sustainable livelihood, Rural, Ghana, Economic, Social, Religious, Education,