In response to the increasing impacts of climatic stressors on human populations, climatic scholars have emphasized the need for alternative approaches to adapt food crop production to climate change and sustain the livelihoods of smallholder farmers. Inspired by agro-ecological intensification (AEI) practices of smallholder farmers, this study contributes to climate change adaptation debates in Sub-Saharan Africa by providing a context-specific exploration of everyday traditional soil and water management practices employed by smallholder farmers in adapting food crop production to climate change. The study employed a qualitative research design, conducted household case studies, focus group discussions, key informant interviews, and a review of secondary data. We show that smallholder farmers employ diverse range of agronomic practices, with a particular emphasis on traditional soil and water management techniques. Such as the preparation and application of organic manure and compost, ridges formation, crop rotation, and cover cropping. These agronomic practices were complemented by the application of limited inorganic fertilizers and applied across different types of farms; compound and bush farms, valley fields, and gardens to adapt production to climate change. We argue that smallholder farmers are more inclined towards adopting AEI as a means of climate change adaptation due to their strong reliance on traditional farming methods, that draws heavily on local resources, indigenous knowledge as relatively affordable practices. Therefore, we emphasize the importance of incorporating an Endogenous Development (ED) approach in promoting AEI as part of climate change adaptation planning, particularly in rural Ghana and other Sub-Saharan African regions facing similar conditions.

The article examined domestic water access sustainability under informally driven water supply market, drawing on suppliers-consumers’ perspectives. Analysis was done on the capacities of the informal water suppliers for sustainable water provision, how the informal water markets operate, and clients’ perspectives of water access today and tomorrow. Four different data set were comparatively analyzed from interviews with the Municipal Water Engineer (MWE), Ward Health Officer (WHO), 3 Mtaa leaders from 3 informal settlements, interviews with 43 informal water sellers from three informal settlements, including a survey of (n = 292) clients in three informal settlements. It was realized that though informal water suppliers are sociocultural capable of providing flexible and gender-sensitive water supply services, households have unsustainable access to improved water due to the financial, hydro-technical, institutional and organizational in capacities of the informal water sellers coupled with the low financial abilities of low-income earning households to continuously purchase water for domestic activities. It was observed that informal settlements’ dwellers are less likely to meet their water supply needs in the near future if their income status together with the financial, hydro-technical, organizational and institutional capacities of the informal water sellers are not improved.