Climate change coping and adaptation and its effect on livestock herd size and farmers’ welfare in the Upper West Region of Ghana

The climate-smart village (CSV) concept is aimed at helping to improve household welfare through better climate change adaptation. This study used data from small ruminant producers in CSV and non-CSV communities of the Lawra and Jirapa municipalities in the Upper West Region of Ghana. First, we assessed how the project related to adoption of climate change coping and adaptation strategies. Next, we examined how the adoption influenced goat producers’ welfare through its effect on herd size. The results showed that farmers located in CSVs adopted about 0.57 more strategy per season for coping with and adapting to climate change than those in non-CSVs. Nevertheless, this higher adoption rate did not translate into any substantial difference in herd size, even though for every additional strategy adopted farmers’ welfare increased by about 0.21%, all else equal. These findings indicate that the CSV concept can help reduce farmers’ vulnerabilities to climate change and foster sustainable livestock production through better adoption of strategies and enhanced welfare. Thus, strengthening the capacities of existing CSVs and scaling up the project to cover new communities would improve the social welfare function for livestock farmers in Ghana and elsewhere. Nevertheless, future research should investigate reasons why higher adoption did not directly increase herd size and advise project implementers accordingly.