Effects of Climate Change on Indigenous Food Systems and Smallholder Farmers in the Tolon District of the Northern Region of Ghana

Climate change remains one of the existential threats to humanity in particular and life on earth in general. It presents significant impacts on food and nutritional security, health, and the general well-being of living organisms globally. Despite global efforts to tackle the climate crisis, the record shows that limited progress has been made in curbing the problem. Consequently, this study intends to address the following research question: How does the climate crisis affect indigenous food systems, farmers’ livelihoods, and local communities in the study area? This study was conducted in the Tolon district of the northern region of Ghana from 2017 to 2022. Grounded in the theoretical prism of political ecology and indigenous knowledge perspective, we selected individuals who were smallholder farmers, students, faculty members, extension officers, and an administrator from the Ministry of Food and Agriculture. The data were gathered through in-depth interviews, focus groups, and workshops and analyzed using coding, thematization, and inferences drawn from the literature and authors’ experiences. This study discovered some of the effects of a changing climate, including the extinction of indigenous food crops, poor yield resulting in poverty, and food and nutritional insecurity. This study concludes that failure to tackle climate change could pose a greater threat to the survival of smallholder households in Ghana.