A total of one hundred and nineteen structured questionnaires were developed and thirty percentage of the root crop farmers,were randomly selected in each of the seven sampled community for interviewing.Questionnaires were distributed to educated farmers young and old, or who had educated relatives in their compounds after thorough explanations of the aim and objectives of the study to the respondents through an interpreter. The implication of including the younger farmers is that younger farmers are likely to adopt new innovation faster than the older ones. This is in agreement with that majority of farmers within the age range of 41 to 50 years are still in their active age, more receptive to innovation and could withstand the stress and strain involved in agricultural production and ease adaptation to climate change.Data analysis was carried out using simple proportion for qualitative variables while mean and standard deviation were used in analyzing the qualitative variable.
The outputs were further presented in tables and charts. The data was structured and presented from the responses to the research questions in line with the aim and objectives of the study. The analysis of the data both primary and secondary data was aimed at bringing to the knowledge of both informed and uninformed stakeholders, the basic understanding, adaptive strategies and experiences of climate change and its effects on root crop farming system in the sampled communities of the Ikwerre Local Government Area, of Rivers State,Nigeria. Analysis of how farmers adjusted to long-term shifts in two major climatic variables that affected root crop farming revealed that apart from Ozuaha all the other six communities indicated 100% wait for a favorable period before planting during a long-term shift in rainfall and replanting of crops that died off during long-term shifts in temperature. However, in Ozuaha, 3.4% will plant at their usual planting periods during long-term shifts in rainfall. But during long-term shifts in temperature, 96.6% of the farmer’s reported that they replanted those crops that died off and 3.4% do not replant.
Findings further showed that the four major root crops cultivated include sweet potatoes, cocoa yam, yams and cassava. Amongst these four major root crops, cassava is the most widely root crop cultivated, meaning that each sampled farmer cultivates cassava followed by yam, cocoayam and sweet potatoes.It therefore, showed that cassava was the mostly affected root crops by climate change especially the changes in rainfall and temperature. There is now unequivocal evidence that the climate of the Earth has demonstrably warmed up since the pre-industrial era and that most of the warming over the last 50 years is very likely to have been as a result of increase in Greenhouse Gases concentrations in the atmosphere .Three major physical impacts of climate change, according to IPCC in Ghana, are temperature rise, changing rainfall regime towards a longer dry season and a varnishing wet season. also underscored the fact that there has been a noticeable shift in the rainfall pattern in Ghana towards a longer dry season and the disappearance of short dry spells between major and minor seasons.
Agriculture is the pillar of Ghana’s economy providing employment to the masses in the rural areas and sustaining the vast majority of the population. Only about 0.89% of the country’s arable land, equivalent to23,657 hectares is cultivated under irrigation, benefitting only rice production .According to , maize yields in Ghana are low compared to that of developed countries. The national average yield is about 1.6 mt per hectare as compared to a country like Brazil . This is primarily due to the inadequate input of fertilisers and non-existing irrigation facilities in the maize production areas .Among the staples cultivated in the country, maize has been identified as one of the most essential food crops within the grains . Maize is grown on more than 997,661 hectares across all the various agro-ecological regions in Ghana .Generally, high temperatures have been reported as detrimental to grain yields. It was projected that maize yields would drop from its estimated level 0.5 to 6.9 in the year 2020. The study of indicated that each day’s temperature above 30˚C would reduce the final yield by 1% under optimal rain-fed conditions, and by 1.7% under drought conditions. In the transition and forest belts, though droughts are not the main drawback, variations in rainfall deficits, particularly in the number of rainy days pose new challenges to rural livelihoods . There is a decrease in the farming season in several places as well as a gradual waning of the secondary growing season in the transition zone . Both primary and secondary data were used in obtaining the data.
With regards to primary data, two focus group discussions were organized in two communities within the Municipality. Twelve key informants comprising seven maize farmers, two sub-chiefs, one meteorologist from GMet-Wenchi branch, one agricultural extension officer from Nkoranza SouthMunicipal Assembly and the 2015 best farmer of the Municipality were also interviewed.Secondary data consisted of meteorological data from GMet which covered 1960 to 2014. This data was divided into two tranches, 1960 to 1982 and 1988 to 2014.