The arrival of most of the pests, such as army worms, was detected in the minor season when there were prolonged dry spells.The pests had the capacity to devour large tracks of maize, increasing the production cost of the poor-resourced farmer. Apart from army worm infestation,diseases like maize streak and stem borer were also causing distress to the farmers.The presence of these pests and diseases were facilitated by changing climate in the Municipality.The respondents were asked what they did when their crop failed; 23%of them reported that they sold other farm produce, 15% of the respondents engaged in trading activities, whereas 12.3% traded in farm animals with about20.5% of farmers doing virtually nothing. Six percent of the respondents lived on borrowing money from friends and relatives. Precipitation was low in the early 1960s but rose steadily in the mid-1960s,falling suddenly in the 1970s. Rainfall, however, progressively rose and somewhat stabilised in the mid-1970s and declined again in the early 1980s.
There was no clear pattern from 1988 to 2015. It was also obvious that from 1988 to2015, the rainfall amount hardly crossed 1000 mm unlike the period between1960-1982. This confirms the farmers’ perception that the current rainfall pattern is rather irregular and unpredictable.The averages of 1960-1982 were higher than that of the present, 1988-2014. From the months of January to March, the mean of 1960-82 was greater than that of 1988-2014. The farmers were right that lately, the amount of rainfall in March had drastically fallen as the amount from 1960-1982 was well over 100 mm , whereas the average amount for theperiod between 1988 and 2014 had reduced to 71.0 mm, which most probably accounted for the reason why majority of the farmers sowed in April .Between 1988 and 2014 rainfall averages had appreciated from April to June,with a deficit in July, rising again in August. Currently, the amount of rainfall in November has decreased to the detriment of farmers. This means that presently,crops do not receive much rainfall as compared to 30 years ago. It can also be inferred from Table 2 & Table 2 that presently, August is getting wetter and the major and minor seasons are progressively merging. It is also clear that the first and the last quarters of the year are getting drier over the last couple of decades with the last five years being the worst.The future seems to be rather bleak looking at the trend in 1960-1982 with almost no rains in November and December.
The average total amount of the period 2010-2014 showed a reduction of 22% over the past five years with a decline between 1960-82 and 1988-2014 of6%. The month of March which was meant for planting of crops now obtained64.5 mm of rainfall against 114.7 mm in the past buttering farmers assertion that climate had changed. On rainfall regularity, the pattern of precipitation in the Municipality is chararcterised by uncertainty. Based on the above tables the amount of rainfall in the month of August increased but figures from 2015 deviated from the trend. The precipitation received in the August,2015 farming season was 0.00 mm. Table 2 also shows a reduction in rainfall amounts between June and August. This phenomenon might have had a negative effect on maize production in 2015, resulting in the lowest yields of maize recorded for the Municipality in the last six years. A report by indicated that even though other contributing factors exist, rising temperature and irregularity in precipitation are the major causes of the continuous reduction in maize yields. Annual rainfall for Nkoranza South Municipality since the 2008/9 farming season for the month of March had never risen above100 mm but rose to 11 mm in 2015 which confirms that the nature of rains in the transitional zone is irregular. According to , declines in total precipitation and increasing irregular rainfall patterns make farming more hazardous,increasing the likelihood of crop failures and reducing agricultural production.
Of these, 78% indicated that the nature of the change was erratic.The majority of the respondents established that the severity of this episode was devastating over the past 5 years. This had therefore made their farming operations riskier as there was no irrigation system in the Municipality, bringing farming activities to a near halt whenever the rain failed .About 65.5% of the farmers admitted that unguided activities of unscrupulouschainsaw operators had led to the cutting down of trees which might have resulted in reduction in rains. On the other hand, 25.5% attributed the changes in precipitation trend to nature itself and 0.5% of the respondents believed that the changes had come due to excessive emission of GHGs into the atmosphere.Another 5% of the farmers also placed the blame on bushfires whereas 3.2% indicated that they did not know what had caused this change.When they were further probed about what could be done to reverse the situation of the erratic rainfall, 64.1% responded that there should be afforestation to replace the felled trees. Others had the view that only God could intervene to restore the situation whilst some farmers called for bush fire control.