Unpacking innovation demands for climate-resilient mixed farming systems in Sub-Saharan Africa: a case of northern Ghana

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cg.contributor.affiliationInternational Water Management Instituteen
cg.contributor.donorCGIAR Trust Funden
cg.contributor.donorUnited States Agency for International Developmenten
cg.contributor.initiativeMixed Farming Systems
cg.contributor.initiativeExcellence in Agronomy
cg.contributor.programAcceleratorSustainable Farming
cg.coverage.countryGhana
cg.coverage.iso3166-alpha2GH
cg.coverage.regionSub-Saharan Africa
cg.creator.identifierAbena Ofosu: 0000-0002-9769-850Xen
cg.creator.identifierThai Minh: 0000-0002-8345-6825en
cg.creator.identifierBirhanu Zemadim: 0000-0002-3497-2364en
cg.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.5304/jafscd.2025.142.020en
cg.identifier.iwmilibraryH053817en
cg.identifier.projectIWMI - C-0005en
cg.identifier.projectIWMI - C-0001en
cg.isijournalISI Journalen
cg.issn2152-0801en
cg.issue2en
cg.journalJournal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Developmenten
cg.reviewStatusPeer Reviewen
cg.volume14en
dc.contributor.authorOfosu, Abenaen
dc.contributor.authorMinh, Thai Thien
dc.contributor.authorBirhanu, Birhanu Zemadimen
dc.date.accessioned2025-05-05T10:19:06Zen
dc.date.available2025-05-05T10:19:06Zen
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10568/174426
dc.titleUnpacking innovation demands for climate-resilient mixed farming systems in Sub-Saharan Africa: a case of northern Ghanaen
dcterms.abstractAccording to the United Nations (n.d.), climate change is the long-term shift in temperatures and weather patterns due to natural changes, such as the sun’s activity and significant volcanic eruptions, or human activities, such as burning fossil fuels like coal, oil, and gas. The effects of and challenges caused by climate change on farmers’ ability to manage mixed farming systems in sub-Saharan Africa are well documented in the literature. However, the synergies among mixed farming systems’ components and farmers’ innovation demands and responses to climate change impacts remain fragmented. Using a case of mixed crop-livestock-tree (MCLT) systems in northern Ghana, this paper examined farmers’ responses, their innovation needs, and how these innovations can be catalyzed to enable more farmers to adopt similar climate change adaptations. Our findings show that climate change impacts mixed farming systems in several domains, with these impacts being more visible in some domains. Significant productivity declines are observed in crops, livestock, and the whole mixed farming system. Productivity declines lead to decreased incomes, food availability, and household food security. Female farmers’ access to production factors, resource management, and market participation is reduced. Farmers make technical, managerial, and business changes in response to climate change impacts. Such changes are dominated by technical changes, including using highyielding, disease-resistant, and early-maturing crop varieties, crop and animal pest and disease management, agricultural water and land management, and wind and bush fire control. Interconnections between the MCLT system components include cross-component investments, additional income generation, animal feeding and healthcare improvement, nutrition exchanges, and family nutrition improvement. These interconnections generate income and cash flow and support food and nutrition security, enabling farmers’ adaptation. Climate-resilient innovation bundles to enable farmers’ adaptation include good agricultural practices, circular farming techniques, irrigation packages, information services, and value-chain linkages. Scaling climate-resilient innovations in northern Ghana and other sub-Saharan African contexts require multiple pathways, including innovation platforms, innovation bundling, multi-actor partnerships, inclusive finance, and multistakeholder dialogues to support farmers’ adaptation to climate change.en
dcterms.accessRightsOpen Access
dcterms.available2025-04-30en
dcterms.bibliographicCitationOfosu, Abena; Minh, Thai Thi; Birhanu, Birhanu Zemadim. 2025. Unpacking innovation demands for climate-resilient mixed farming systems in Sub-Saharan Africa: a case of northern Ghana. Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, 14(2):461-482. [doi: https://doi.org/10.5304/jafscd.2025.142.020]en
dcterms.extent461-482.en
dcterms.issued2025-04en
dcterms.languageen
dcterms.licenseCC-BY-4.0
dcterms.publisherThomas A. Lyson Center for Civic Agriculture and Food Systemsen
dcterms.subjectmixed farmingen
dcterms.subjectfarming systemsen
dcterms.subjectclimate change impactsen
dcterms.subjectclimate resilienceen
dcterms.subjectinnovation scalingen
dcterms.subjectclimate change adaptationen
dcterms.subjectlivestocken
dcterms.subjectfarmersen
dcterms.typeJournal Article

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