Farmers perceptions on trends of onset and session of rainfall in Northern Ghana

The timing of onset and cession of rainfall has wide implications on the cropping calendar activities. This information is recorded by rainfall gauge stations that are sparse in northern Ghana. Data recorded from earth observing satellites can complement the sparse gauge stations. However, there is need to verify if the trends measured from satellite data is consistent with the experiences of farmers. The aim of this tool is to collect information on farmers perceptions on the trends of onset and cession of rainfall in the Sudan-Savannah agro-ecology located in the Northern, Upper-East and Upper West regions of Ghana. The survey elicited farmers' perceptions on the trends of the three rainfall indices', their impacts on cropping calendar activities, and the adaptation measures implemented to cope with the changes. This information will be compared with results obtained from observation gauge network and the estimates from remote sensing satellites. The synthesis of the information is expected to improve agro-advisories on the cropping calendar events such as timely planting.