Background: Weather-related risks thwart agricultural productivity gains especially in the face of climate change. Agricultural insurance serves as a reliable risk mitigation instrument for coping with climate-related hazards. This notwithstanding, agricultural insurance penetration among smallholder farmers in the global south remains low. This study investigated the access and acceptability of agricultural insurance among smallholder food crop farmers in Ghana. Method: The study employed a mixed-methods approach involving both quantitative and qualitative approaches. The study was carried out in the Northern, Volta and Western regions involving 7 communities in 5 districts. A total of 200 farmers were sampled through a multi-stage purposive sampling and interviewed. A cross-sectional survey involved 100 respondents under the quantitative approach whilst the qualitative study engaged additional 100 farmers. Results: The results show that smallholder farmers’ access and acceptability of agricultural insurance is low (14%) and scarce but ironically considered useful by many (90%) as an effective tool to deal with agricultural risks. Inadequate knowledge about agricultural insurance products constituted the most stated reason (64%) for the scarce adoption rate, followed (23%) by the unavailability of insurance products in areas needed but absent. A few (5%) reported insurance to be expensive. Acceptability and accessibility of agricultural insurance are further influenced by gender, educational level, low knowledge, information asymmetry and wrong perception concerning agricultural insurance products. Sense of security and reduced impact of climate variabilities constituted important benefits guaranteed by agricultural insurance. Conclusions: Agricultural insurance access and acceptability is constrained by limited knowledge of agricultural insurance products. It is recommended that more insurance companies be incentivized to augment already existing efforts by Ghana Agricultural Insurance Pool (GAIP) to enroll more smallholder farmers. The government can consider bundling existing insurance products with credit or inputs under the Planting for Food and Jobs Programme (PFJ) to improve uptake and accessibility of agricultural insurance.

The study examined the reliability of indigenous knowledge and science-based predictors of climate and how this influences smallholder farmers’ practices and adaptations in Ghana’s three regions (Northern, Western and Volta regions). Two districts were selected in each region: Builsa South and Zabzugu in Northern Region, Swefi Wiaso and Jomoro in Western Region, and Agotime-Ziope and Ketu North in Volta Region. The study employed purposive sampling involving 240 respondents. The findings show indigenous predictors of climate include the emergence of migratory birds, the direction of cloud formation, sun intensity, frog croaks and sprouting of new leaves on Emire, Shea, Tarmeranda and Baobab trees. An indigenous knowledge reliability index of 0.72 relative to 0.88 for science-based predictors was obtained, implying that both indigenous knowledge and science-based predictors are reliable indicators for forecasting weather. Indigenous knowledge and science-based predictors influence adaptation strategies through the cultivation of indigenous varieties, early or late planting, diversification of crops cultivated and the use of improved crop and drought-tolerant varieties. Governments in sub-Saharan Africa can consider tasking meteorological stations to harness indigenous and science-based predictors in daily forecasts towards adaptation and mitigation strategies.

Inadequate access to agricultural extension services often results in poor farm practices, affecting yields and subsequently the income and wellbeing of smallholder farmers. Given the high demand for agricultural information and the limited capacity of extension services, a farmer-to-farmer extension approach has been explored by many underserved farmers. In this study, we use a qualitative case study approach explore how cassava farmers who had limited access to agricultural advisory services from public extension agents managed to up-scale their farming business. Our research question was: what lessons can be learned from the lived experience of these farmers to address current challenges of cassava farming? The results of our study revealed diversity in advisory messages from farmer to farmer and agricultural extension agents. Farmers’ messages focused on encouraging farmers’ commitment and motivation towards farming business, availability of needed financial resources for the entire production season, willingness to reinvest profits, and access to farmland for future expansion. In contrast, the traditional messages from agricultural extension agents focused on encouraging group formation to address marketing challenges, diversification of farm operations, and good agricultural practices. These results show the need for pluralistic extension approaches to ensure farmers get access to necessary information.

The adoption of maize hybrids is essential to contribute to maize productivity and ensure self-sufficiency and food security. However, the adoption of improved varieties hybrids technology including in Ghana is very low. Farmers’ socio-economic characteristics in relation to the adoption of maize hybrids, farmers constraints and readiness to adopt maize hybrids were assessed using a cross-sectional survey of 173 farmers in four regions in the forest-savannah agro-ecological zones in Ghana. The percentage of farmers that used hybrid seed in 2019 and 2020 were 32.4% and 22.5%, respectively. Of the four hybrids varieties grown, none was locally produced and over 83% of the farmers indicated readiness to adopt maize hybrid seed. The empirical model reveals that farmers readiness to adopt maize hybrids is positively influenced by gender, age, high yield and constraints variables such as high cost of production and pests and diseases.

Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) has gained traction as one of the effective strategies in tackling the climate crisis. Many CSA practices have been promoted by development agencies to smallholder farmers based on the assumption that farmers would adopt these innovations for their potential benefits. However, the adoption of CSA practices in Ghana and much of Africa remains low and decision making and on-farm innovation processes are poorly understood. This study seeks to provide empirical and participatory insight into how smallholder farmers innovate. Based on a novel application of a participatory video methodology, in farming communities in the Upper West Region of Ghana, that have been exposed to multiple CSA intervention programmes, the paper analyses farmers’ own self-curated accounts of experiences with CSA innovation. The findings show that farmer’s motivation to adopt CSA innovations is driven by their concerns for food security, economic gains, and the environmental impact of climate change on their farming activities and livelihood. The study reveals a mismatch between the CSA technologies and practices advanced by the development agencies and what farmers perceive as relevant and important in addressing their farming challenges. In particular, the findings show that in a pool of more than 12 CSA technologies and practices that had been promoted through three donor-driven intervention programmes in the communities, farmers selected less labour intensive, less costly, and CSA technologies and practices that fitted to their current farming practices and the local context. Agricultural extension agents served as an important information source on the CSA innovation and their practical implementation and farmers’ social groups played a crucial role in facilitating learning about the CSA technologies and practices. There is the need to integrate farmers voices using innovative methodologies such as participatory videos to better understand farmers’ experiences in the innovation process which will help inform the design of effective interventions and promote adoption of innovations aimed at enhancing the productivity of smallholder farmers and reducing environmental impacts in African food systems. By focusing on the innovations that farmers perceive as beneficial and adaptable to their local contexts, development organizations can use their resources more efficiently and promote adoption of contextually appropriate CSA innovations.