Agricultural Information's Impact on the Adaptive Capacity of Ghana's Smallholder Cocoa Farmers
Agricultural Information's Impact on the Adaptive Capacity of Ghana's Smallholder Cocoa Farmers
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DOI：
10.3389/fsufs.2020.00028
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发表时间：
2020-03-17
影响因子：
4.7
通讯作者：
Hirons, Mark A.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Maguire-Rajpaul, Victoria A.;Khatun, Kaysara;Hirons, Mark A.
加纳的小农户种植了世界上四分之一的可可，但气候变化、干旱等个别极端天气事件以及森林砍伐日益威胁可可生产。相关信息可以增强适应能力。然而，在加纳的可可部门，并非所有农民都能获得相关的农业信息，这可能加剧权力不对称。本文件重点讨论（一）农业和干旱适应信息和（二）社会经济特征如何塑造可可种植者的适应能力。我们在2015-16年厄尔尼诺现象引发的长期干旱之后进行了研究，这对加纳各地可可小农的生计产生了负面影响。在48个半结构化访谈和12个焦点小组中，我们询问了小农对干旱的反应，以解读接受四种不同农业信息来源和不同社会经济地位的农民之间的适应能力比较。总的来说，与没有得到正式农业信息的可可种植者相比，农业信息提高了可可种植者的适应能力。小农户详细介绍了其他资源贫乏的可可种植者可以获得并可复制的适应性技术。遮荫树管理和收入多样化被确定为相关的适应行动。然而，我们发现了暴露于农业信息和其转化为实质性的适应行动之间的分歧。此外，小农户之间的非正式信息共享是推广方案未充分利用的资源。我们发现，适应能力还取决于社会经济特征：特别是性别，并在较小程度上正规教育水平，接近沥青道路，土地保有权。最后，我们提出的证据表明，在与农民的直接生计问题产生共鸣的相关条款框架适应技术可以缩小加纳可可行业普遍存在的适应赤字。
Ghanaian smallholders grow one quarter of the world's cocoa, but climate change, individual extreme weather events, such as droughts, as well as deforestation increasingly threaten cocoa production. Pertinent information could bolster adaptive capacity. However, in Ghana's cocoa sector, relevant agricultural information is not available to all farmers, which can exacerbate power asymmetries. This paper focuses on how (i) agricultural and drought-adaptive information and (ii) socio-economic characteristics shape a cocoa farmer's adaptive capacity. We conducted our study in the aftermath of 2015-16's prolonged El Nino-induced drought that negatively impacted the livelihoods of cocoa smallholders across Ghana. In 48 semi-structured interviews and 12 focus groups, we asked smallholders how they responded to the drought to decipher how adaptive capacity compares between farmers receiving four different sources of agricultural information, and of diverse socio-economic status. Overall, agricultural information improved cocoa farmers' adaptive capacity compared to those who received no formal agricultural information. Smallholders detailed adaptive techniques that would be accessible to, and thus replicable by, other poorly-resourced cocoa farmers. Shade tree management and income diversification were identified as pertinent adaptive actions. However, we identified a divergence between exposure to agricultural information and its transformation into substantive adaptive action. Additionally, informal information sharing between smallholders represents an underutilized resource by extension programmes. We found that adaptive capacity is also determined by socio-economic characteristics: particularly gender, and to a lesser extent formal education level, proximity to asphalt roads, and land tenure. Finally, we present evidence that framing adaptive techniques in relatable terms that resonate with farmers' immediate livelihood concerns could narrow the adaptation deficit prevalent in Ghana's cocoa sector.