Abstract

This paper assesses smallholder rainfed ricefarmers’ adaptive capacity and strategies to climate change inthe Upper East Region of Ghana. We conducted thequestionnaire survey to understand how these farmers copedwith climate change hazards. Most respondents reported tohave used some adaptation strategies, such as using improvedrice varieties, early planting, field bunding and ricetransplanting. We also found that 68% of the respondents hadmedium adaptive capacity with seasonal and unsustainablealternative income sources. This finding at least partiallyexplains why off-farm jobs in the area are not available andwhy 50% of the respondents had offered farm labor services astheir alternative income source. We further demonstrate thatsmallholder rice farmers in the study area were vulnerable toseveral socio-economic challenges such as weak asset base andinadequate institutional and governmental support. Thesechallenges threatened their ability to