Smallholder Farmers’ Vulnerability and Adaptation to Climatic Heat Stress in Northern Ghana

Abstract 

The impact of climate change on workers, productivity, and food production has become a growing and increasingly urgent global challenge. Workers who do physical labour outside, such as smallholder farmers in the Global South, are particularly vulnerable to climatic heat stress.

This project aims to investigate the effects of heat stress on smallholder farmers in Northern Ghana, focusing on the risks to their well-being, the adaptive strategies they employ, and the structural barriers to adaptation.

The study uses a conceptual lens grounded in the concepts of vulnerability and climate precarity to examine how social, economic, and environmental factors interact to shape farmers' exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity to climatic heat stress. Specifically, it aims to evaluate farmers' perception of climate-induced heat stress, its effects on their physiological, psychological and economic well-being, and the barriers and enablers to their adaptive responses.

The research will also analyse how broader social structures influence farmers' vulnerability and adaptation strategies. An explanatory sequential mixed-methods design will guide the research, using a survey questionnaire and semi-structured interviews to collect the quantitative and qualitative data from six communities in Northern Ghana.

The findings aim to inform both local and international policy, facilitating interventions that enhance the resilience and well-being of smallholder farmers in Ghana, while enhancing global food security.