The role of climate and loan financing information on solar irrigation adoption among cocoa farmers in Ghana

While climate change poses increasing risks to cocoa production, the adoption of irrigation in Ghana's cocoa sector remains low. In this context, this study examined farmers' preferences for climate and loan financing information for solar irrigation adoption. A discrete choice experiment was conducted with cocoa farmers across seven regions of Ghana. In treatment groups, we varied the availability of major season consecutive dry days information, while both groups received major season rainfall amount information, forecast spread, and financial conditions for solar irrigation adoption. The climate information projected conditions over a five-year horizon. Using mixed logit and latent class models, we found that farmers responded strongly to loan costs per month and the fraction of their farm that would be irrigated. In contrast, farmers showed limited sensitivity to climate and forecast spread information. We found that farmers were not willing to pay for rainfall amount and consecutive dry days information. We did not detect a significant difference in cocoa farmer preferences for solar irrigation when additional dry days information was provided. However, we did detect that consecutive dry days information was used during decision making. Preferences were shaped by perceptions of climate change and education levels, and not by stated attribute non-attendance. The findings highlight the importance of financial support and that transmission of climate information to farmers and actual use of this information for decision making is complex and requires a context-specific combination of climate and behavioural sciences.