Effects of customized climate services on land and labor productivity in Burkina Faso and Ghana

Climate services favor adopting strategies to increase agricultural productivity, enhance sustainable development, and adapt to unavoidable climate variability and change. However, for climates services to be effective, they must be accessible and suitable to user needs. This study investigated the effects of customized climate services (CCS) on land and labor productivity. Portraying the case of CCS delivered in the districts of Bolgatanga (Northern Ghana), Dano and Ouahigouya (western and northern Burkina Faso) in West Africa, it used: i) historical panel data of daily rainfall, yields, agricultural input, and output prices; ii) cost statements of farm operations and iii) other survey data from beneficiaries of on-farm demonstrations (pilot sites). Different results were found across farmers on the demonstrator sites, with Dano and Bolgatanga recording the best land and labor productivity. Strong and positive effects were observed in Dano, where land productivity increased by 200% and labor productivity doubled despite consecutive pluviometric extremes such as heavy rain events and prolonged dry spells in the 2017 and 2018 cropping seasons. Further investigation showed that CCS was particularly favorable to land and labor productivity of farmers who were committed to the advisory given by the CCS providers. Therefore, as perishable goods, the success of CCS applications would require thorough co-production, delivery, and monitoring for their effectiveness in improving land and labor productivity for agriculture in semi-arid regions of West Africa.