Indigenous adaptation to climate change risks in northern Ghana

There is growing evidence of a range of theoretical and applied Indigenous climate change adaptation strategies, yet analyses of African examples are generally focused at single local spatial scales, with limited description of how they have evolved over time. Drawing from research across three districts in northern Ghana, this study employs a mixed-methods approach and an interpretivist framework to develop understanding of how farmers are implementing Indigenous adaptation strategies in response to climate change risks at both household and community scales. Farmers are perceiving multiple climate risks such as increased temperatures, erratic rainfall and prolonged droughts, which are disrupting cropping calendars and decreasing productivity. In response to those impacts, farming households are utilising Indigenous knowledge to individually implement diverse strategies such as rainwater harvesting, relocation of farms to water sources, neem leaf extract and organic manure applications, while communities are collectively engaging in congregational prayers, rituals for rainmaking, taboos, investment in local irrigation systems and tree planting. Farmers’ adaptation strategies are evolving over time, as many people are integrating Indigenous practices with modern knowledge and technologies to facilitate improvements in irrigation, organic manure application, planting drought-resistant crops, agroforestry and crop diversification. Decision-makers in local, regional and national government institutions could work to design multi-scalar adaptation interventions that support the integration of Indigenous and modern knowledge to address the complexity of climate change risks across different scales to promote sustainable livelihoods.