Carbon farming training and welfare: Evidence from Northern Ghana

Carbon farming, particularly soil carbon climate strategies, has emerged as a popular tool in addressing climate change and variability in worldwide agriculture. Yet, there is a paucity of evidence on its application, and even more so, limited evidence exists on the welfare impacts in developing countries, where the negative impacts of climate change and variability remain disproportionately higher. One potential option of increasing adoption of carbon farming practices is training for farm households to produce their own organic inputs from locally available resources. This study evaluates a biochar and compost production training undertaken in three semi-arid regions of Northern Ghana using inverse probability weighting regression adjustment (IPWRA) model. Sensitivity analyses are performed by employing least absolute shrinkage and selection operator treatment effects (TELASSO) method. The results show that participation in carbon farming training increased the adoption of compost and perception on soil quality. We also find that the intervention had statistically significant positive effects on agricultural productivity (measured as maize yield) and welfare outcomes (such as increase in per capita household expenditure and reduction in poverty status). These positive results show the importance of using soil carbon climate strategies in improving the welfare of farm households in developing countries. The study recommends that carbon farming capacity building initiatives should be scaled up to improve farm productivity and poverty reduction of farm households in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).