Posted by Alumni from The Conversation
August 20, 2025
Droughts are a familiar hardship in Ghana's semi-arid north, where rainfall is erratic and agriculture is the mainstay of rural economies. The economic and environmental effects of drought have been well documented. But less attention is paid to its psychological toll on farmers and their families. We conducted a study in the Talensi district of Ghana's Upper East region to assess the impact of drought on the mental wellbeing of peri-urban farmers in semi-arid Ghana. We are a multidisciplinary team of scholars working in the area of resilience, sustainability and more recently psychological wellbeing. Our findings offer important insights for policymakers, especially in the context of climate change, which is intensifying drought conditions in the region. This study is among the first in Ghana ' and the broader west African region ' to empirically examine the mental health effects of drought on farmers using validated psychological tools. It opens a crucial conversation about how... learn more