The effects of climate change on food production in Ghana: evidence from Maki (2012) cointegration and frequency domain causality models

Abstract

Climate change has been a major issue in policy discourse over the past four decades due to its impact on the agriculture sector. This study investigates the effects of climate change variables on food production in Ghana from 1970 to 2019. The results reveal that temperature is inimical to overall food production, maize and roots and tubers production while precipitation is good for cereal and maize production. Furthermore, Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions impact maize production negatively. The frequency-domain causality test reveals that CO2 Granger causes food production in the long-run. The results suggest that high temperature is harmful to over all food production and some selected crops in Ghana. From a policy perspective, efforts to develop temperature-resilient crops, especially maize, roots, and tubers are necessary to improve food production in Ghana. In addition, there is the need to improve adaptation strategies to reduce the adverse effects of climate change on the food production.