Building smallholder farmers’ resilience under climate change through agroforestry practice in the northern savanna of Ghana: determinants and policy implications

Agroforestry has the potential to sustainably improve agriculture by enhancing land productivity to support the livelihood of smallholder farmers. However, the ability of agroforestry to facilitate coping ability of local communities toward climate-related risk and hazards is insufficiently understood. This study examined the ability of smallholder farmers’ to build resilience under climate change through agroforestry. Using a mixed-method approach, we sampled 345 smallholder farmers from vulnerable communities in the Nandom municipality of northern Ghana. The results indicate agroforestry contributes to sustainable livelihood and household livelihood security through the provision of food/fodder, income, assets, firewood, medicinal herbs and housing raw materials. The logistic regression estimates showed that access to training (p < 0.001; r = 0.992), extension services (p < 0.003; r = 0.355), household size (p < 0.007; r = 0.549) and years of farming experience (p < 0.064; r = 0.992) positively influence smallholders’ decision to practice agroforestry. Inadequate seedlings, poor soil and poor seed quality, unfavorable rainfall pattern negatively influenced smallholders’ decision to practice agroforestry. The study concludes that agroforestry in the Nandom Municipality is an important means to sustainable livelihoods and household livelihoods security and also contribute to sustainable environmental management. These findings have broader implications in advancing sustainable agriculture and rural livelihoods in dry land farming systems in sub-Saharan Africa and beyond.