Urbanization, coupled with uncontrolled land use change, is posing serious livelihood challenges to households in developing countries. Undoubtedly, urbanization has been observed to be in serious contest with agriculture for land space in peri-urban areas. With urbanization taking a rapid and major toll on livelihoods through the annexing of agricultural lands for farming, this study seeks to examine the livelihood options/strategies available to peri-urban dwellers in the Wa Municipality who depend on agriculture for their livelihood. The study adopts the concurrent embedded mixed methods research design to study 394 randomly selected residents in four (4) of ten (10) peri-urban communities in the Municipality. Structured questionnaires are administered to household heads and complemented with in-depth interviews involving chiefs, family/clan heads, tindanas (Land Priest) and the land sector agencies. The questionnaires are analyzed descriptively using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 22 while the interviews are analyzed using the thematic analysis. In determining the relationship between residents’ livelihood adaptation strategies and agricultural land use change as a result of urbanization, a linearity test is performed. The results of the study show that households engaged a mix of non-farm and on-farm livelihood adaptation strategies to response to the agricultural land use change instigated by urbanization. The results of the test of linearity also reveal that trading/petty business, exchange of labor for pay and migration are significantly related to agricultural land use change as a result of urbanization. The study recommends the need for the Municipal Assembly, Ministry of Land and Natural Resources and the Ministry of Agriculture to devise and implement possible alternative livelihoods support systems to help the study communities respond to the urbanization and agricultural land use change.

Globally, climate-smart agriculture is highly recognized as an approach for sustainable agriculture and food systems. In Africa and other developing countries, climate-smart agriculture is observed to reposition and modify agricultural systems for improved food and nutritional security. Despite the relevance of the approach to sustainable agricultural planning, illegal gold mining in many parts of the society is placing constraints to its implementation and adoption through its contest with agricultural land for space and activities. Illegal gold mining is on the rise due to the lucrativeness of the non-regulated gold rush opportunities with hard consequences on sustainable agriculture and resilience food systems. As a result, this study seeks to investigate illegal gold mining and its environmental implication for climate-smart agriculture in Ghana. The study used a single case study using a mixed-methods approach to research. The study adopted purposive and systematic sampling techniques to select the study communities and respondents, respectively. Questionnaire and interviews were used to gather the primary data from respondents at the household level, as the unit of analysis. Descriptive statistics and thematic analysis reveal that known agricultural practices such as terracing, crop rotation, use of domestic waste/manure, and irrigation of crops were affected adversely by activities of illegal mining. The study recommends the need for conscious efforts from the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources to sustain the ban on illegal mining with intensified monitoring and supervision while a systematic scheme involving relevant stakeholders is developed and implemented to ban illegal mining in Ghana completely. The Ministry of Food and Agriculture needs to develop an approach to support the adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices by smallholder farmers to meet the food demand of their households.

Climate variability has become a critical issue for rural farmers in Ghana due to its impacts on factors responsible for agricultural food production. The aim of this research was to investigate indigenous knowledge indicators in determining climate variability in rural Ghana.. A descriptive case study using mixed-methods was employed. Questionnaire and interviews were used to gather the data from 211 household heads across six study communities. Quantitative data collected was analysed descriptively while the qualitative information was analysed using a thematic approach. Findings revealed indigenous people used the growth of local plants species, chirping of crickets, wind direction, and millipedes’ movement as indicators to detect an approaching season or sudden variation of climate, while the leaves of the “populs” plant and insect chirping were indicators determining excessive heat. The article recommends the Ghana Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology incorporate indigenous knowledge into climate change adaptation policies and strategies.