| 1. |
- Armah, FA, et al.
(författare)
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Food security and climate change in drought-sensitive savanna zones of Ghana
- 2011
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Ingår i: Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1573-1596 .- 1381-2386. ; 16:3, s. 291-306
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Desertification, climate variability and food security are closely linked through drought, land cover changes, and climate and biological feedbacks. In Ghana, only few studies have documented these linkages. To establish this link the study provides historical and predicted climatic changes for two drought sensitive agro-ecological zones in Ghana and further determines how these changes have influenced crop production within the two zones. This objective was attained via Markov chain and Fuzzy modelling. Results from the Markov chain model point to the fact that the Guinea savanna agro-ecological zone has experienced delayed rains from 1960 to 2008 while the Sudan savanna agro-ecological zone had slightly earlier rains for the same period. Results of Fuzzy Modelling indicate that very suitable and moderately suitable croplands for millet and sorghum production are evenly distributed within the two agro-ecological zones. For Ghana to adapt to climate change and thereby achieve food security, it is important to pursue strategies such as expansion of irrigated agricultural areas, improvement of crop water productivity in rain-fed agriculture, crop improvement and specialisation, and improvement in indigenous technology. It is also important to encourage farmers in the Sudan and Guinea Savanna zones to focus on the production of cereals and legumes (e.g. sorghum, millet and soybeans) as the edaphic and climatic factors favour these crops and will give the farmers a competitive advantage. It may be necessary to consider the development of the study area as the main production and supply source of selected cereals and legumes for the entire country in order to free lands in other regions for the production of crops highly suitable for those regions on the basis of their edaphic and climatic conditions.
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| 2. |
- Armah, FA, et al.
(författare)
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Mapping of noise risk zones derived from religious activities and perceptions in residential neighbourhoods in the Cape Coast metropolis, Ghana
- 2010
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Ingår i: Environmental Hazards: Human and Policy Dimensions. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1747-7891. ; 9:4, s. 358-368
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Ambient noise levels emanating from religious activities in residential neighbourhoods are an emerging environmental problem that educes little attention from enforcement agencies and policy makers in Ghana. This paper set out to quantify religious noise exposure in urban residential neighbourhoods in the Cape Coast metropolis of Ghana. Subjective annoyance levels of residents in selected communities were determined. Noise risk zones were mapped using ARCGIS 9.3 software and surface interpolation for the data was carried out using inverse distance weighting. The results show that most (77 and 86 per cent) of the locations recorded noise levels that were above the Ghana Environmental Protection Agency maximum permissible limit for day and night, respectively. Pearson's correlation coefficient for day and night noise exposure shows strong association (0.714) at the 0.01 level. There is variability in the levels of noise for both day and night, which are rather high (standard deviation = 7.59477 and 7.94022, respectively). Generally, levels of noise exposure correlated with levels of annoyance of residents, except that the highest noise exposure was not recorded in the community where the annoyance level of residents was highest. Residential neighbourhoods within the study area largely experienced safe to tolerable levels of religious noise, although 5 per cent were within the high-risk zone. Given that the selected residential areas have high population densities, even when the dispersion of noise risk is spatially limited, it affects a large number of people who belong to different socio-economic classes.
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| 3. |
- Tambang, Yengoh Genesis, et al.
(författare)
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Impact of prolonged rainy seasons on food crop production in Cameroon
- 2010
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Ingår i: Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1573-1596 .- 1381-2386. ; 15:8, s. 825-841
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study set out to examine why agricultural production in differing agro-ecological zones of the same country responds differently to a common environmental event (an extension of the rainy season). We find that the heavy reliance of farmers in the drier agro-ecological zones on seasonal cycles make them more vulnerable to an extension of the rainy season than those in regions where rainfall is less relied on. Effects in these vulnerable regions include significant damage to crops as well as a shortage in local markets, which raises prices of basic food commodities. The difference between prices in low and high food producing periods is low for crops that can easily be preserved during rains (such as cassava at 58% from an average of 20% in previous years and yams at 82% from 65%). Crops that depend on sunshine for preservation experience greater differences between low and high periods (maize at 92% from an average of 31% in previous years, sorghum at 180% from 53%, and beans at 68% from 42%). In zones with a history of unreliable dry seasons, farmers are more adapted to coping with an extension of the rainy season and possess technology and skills which can be made available to others in vulnerable zones through inter-regional knowledge transfer of knowledge and skills. This study further reinforces the understanding that isolated climate shocks could be important in understanding and managing vulnerability. Also, vulnerability is quite variable even among communities in the same country, in which people practice the same economic activity and are exposed to the same shock.
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