Climate change is intensifying the challenges faced by women farmers in Nyasabga, a farming community in the Karaga District of Ghana’s Northern Region, where prolonged drought and declining soil fertility are threatening livelihoods and food security.
For many women, limited access to land, continuous tilling, and unpredictable rainfall have resulted in shrinking harvests and worsening poverty. Yet, amid these difficulties, a few farmers are demonstrating resilience by adopting climate-smart agricultural practices that are helping them survive in an increasingly hostile environment.
Drought and Declining Yields
Baba Fati, a smallholder farmer in Nyasabga, has cultivated the same piece of land for the past six years after it was allocated to her by her husband. She recalls that farming conditions were better in the early years, but repeated droughts and soil exhaustion have drastically reduced her yields.
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“I have been farming on this land to feed my children. At first, it was better, but last year was terrible. The drought was severe and the yields were very low. It looks like it’s happening again this year because we have had a dry spell for the past two weeks,” she said.
Fati fears that another poor harvest could worsen her already precarious situation. She appealed for support to enable her purchase fertiliser to improve soil productivity.
“I am appealing for support to buy fertiliser so I can apply it to my farm. Hopefully, when the rains finally come, I can make some yields,” she added.
Food Insecurity at Household Level
The impact of climate stress is visible in Fati’s household. At her home, her children were eating boiled corn for breakfast—without vegetables or protein.
“If you harvest and there is no yield, how do you pay your children’s school fees or give them nutritious meals? What you saw them eating is all I can afford,” she said.
Her experience reflects a broader reality in many rural farming households, where climate-induced crop failures directly translate into malnutrition, school dropouts, and deepening poverty.
Defying the Odds with Climate-Smart Farming
While many women struggle, others in Nyasabga are adapting. Abukari Suweba is one such farmer who has embraced climate-smart agricultural practices to overcome land scarcity and declining soil fertility.
She explained that with support from SWIDA Ghana, traditional leaders allocated degraded land to women farmers, who were then trained to restore soil fertility using organic methods.
“They taught us how to use grass, farm waste, and cow dung to make the land fertile again. Now my corn, tomatoes, okro, ayoyo, and other crops are growing very well,” she said.
Suweba has also diversified into integrated farming by combining vegetable cultivation with fish farming.
“There is a fish pond, and we use the water from it to fertilise our vegetable farms. We now have all kinds of vegetables and trees growing on this land,” she added.
Nutrition and Livelihood Gains
The adoption of these practices has improved food availability and nutrition for her household.
“When you harvest the vegetables, add kanton, our local spice, and cook, it’s delicious and very healthy. You don’t need a hospital to tell you that you are malnourished,” she said.
Her success demonstrates how climate-smart agriculture can improve food security, nutrition, and income when farmers are supported with knowledge and resources.
Climate Change and Policy Response
A lecturer at the Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources at Tamale Technical University, Mahama Wayo, explained that human-induced environmental degradation is driving climate change and worsening drought conditions.
“The more gases we release into the atmosphere, the more we damage the ozone layer. That results in heat and drought. Population growth, industrialisation, and vehicle emissions are all contributing factors,” he said.
Mr Wayo noted that Ghana’s climate-smart agriculture framework aligns with the National Climate Change Policy and promotes sustainable farming practices, climate information dissemination, and targeted support for vulnerable farmers.
“Climate-smart agriculture is one of the policies under Ghana’s climate change agenda. We encourage farmers to adopt these practices,” he said.
However, he acknowledged that the cost of adoption remains a major barrier.
“These practices can be expensive. That is why government support through subsidies, loans, and grants is necessary to help farmers adopt these technologies,” he recommended.
A Call for Targeted Support
The experiences of women farmers in Nyasabga highlight the unequal burden of climate change on vulnerable groups, particularly women with limited land rights and access to finance.
As climate pressures intensify, targeted investment in climate-smart agriculture, gender-responsive land policies, and farmer financing will be critical to safeguarding food security and rural livelihoods in Northern Ghana.
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Samuel Kwame Boadu is a Ghanaian entrepreneur, writer, and digital consultant passionate about creating impactful stories and business solutions. He is the Founder & CEO of SamBoad Business Group Ltd, a dynamic company with subsidiaries in digital marketing, logistics, publishing, and risk management.
