Assessing the Impact of Change in Rainfall and Temperature on Crop Yields (Maize and Cassava) in Some Selected Areas in Ghana

The agriculture sector is the largest source of employment for Ghanaians and is dominated by smallholder farmers. Not much technical knowledge or scientific skills are required for individual local farming, this makes agricultural the major driver of poverty reduction. However, agricultural growth heavily depends on climatic variables such as rainfall patterns, atmospheric temperature, etc. the current growth is still driven by land expansion. The objective of this paper was to investigate the impact and relationship between the climatic variables mentioned above on crop yield such as maize crop and cassava crops. The said crops were selected the among the top local food crops cultivated in almost every district. In other to examine the relationship between the climatic variables on crop yield, regression model�s analysis was used. The significate p-value were set at 5 %. We observe that there is a statistically significant difference between rainfall, temperature and area per hectare on crop yield in the three selected districts in Ghana. The results indicate that in Kwahu South district average temperature has a statistically significant relationship on crop yield (maize yield). Also, in Offinso North district, there is an indication that average temperature, average rainfall and area per hectare has a statistically significant relationship on crop yield (cassava yield). We also found that in Twifo Praso district area per hectare has a statistically significant relationship on crop yield (cassava yield). Food insecurity, and some policy plans to reduce food insecurity were also highlighted.