The data on groundwater were collected from 12 piezometers installed in the Bongo and Vea Irrigation Schemes. Data collection started on 01.10.2014.

This data is the result of collecting opinions of stakeholders on how they decide to use their land use products for generating benefits (food provision, fodder provision, energy provision, construction material provision and market value provision).

There have been recent incidences of weather extremes in the West African Sudan Savanna and farmers have responded through implementation of relevant adaptation strategies. For a deeper insight into farmers’ adaptation to climatic shocks, this study documents farmers’ perception of recent changes in the local climate, and identifies factors that influence the number and choice of strategies implemented. Interdependencies among strategies are explored and joint and marginal probabilities of adoption estimated. Upper East Ghana and Southwest Burkina Faso are used as the case study regions. These regions were selected due to extreme reliance of inhabitants on agriculture for sustenance, and their recent exposure to weather extremes. Through estimation of a Poisson regression and multivariate probit model to identify the major factors that influence the number and choice of strategies adopted, we discover that limited access to credit, markets, and extension services, smaller cropland area, and low level of mechanization could impede effective adaptation to weather extremes. To enhance farmers’ adaptive capacity, policy makers and various stakeholders need to contribute towards improving farmers’ access to credit, markets, and extension services, and implement measures to promote mechanization.

Water levels of the Bongo Central dam recorded daily from water gauges installed in the reservoir. The data collection started on 09.12.2014 and still in progress.

The population of livestock estimated for the Gowrie subdistrict of the Bongo district in the Upper East Region of Ghana. Data from 2013-2016 are based on projections with an annual growth rate of 10%.

The questionnaire is about current and future direct and indirect drivers of land use/cover change (LUCC), positive or negative impact of drivers of LUCC on food security and water security and trends of land cover and crop types under "business as usual"in the Upper East Region (UER). The questionnaire has been send by e-mail to researchers (experts) in Ghana who are doing or have done research on land use changes in the Upper East Region. The questionnaire is based on interviews with researchers in Ghana on driving forces of land use change in the Upper East Region, conducted in November 2013.

The questionnaire is about current and future direct and indirect drivers of land use/cover change (LUCC) and trends of land cover and crop types under "business as usual" in the Upper East Region (UER). The questionnaire was conducted between Oct. 2014 and Feb. 2015 and is based on interviews with researchers in Ghana on driving forces of land use change in the Upper East Region, conducted in November 2013.

This data is the result of a stakeholder survey to identify their perception on the effects of land use alternatives. Regarding seven different ecosystem services(food provision, fodder provision, energy provision, construction material provision, market value provision, water provision and erosion control), it presents how they can be altered in a positive or a negative way by per cent when stakeholders choose a certain land use scenario.

We interviewed stakeholders in the land use planning process at the district level to get a clear understanding of urbanization and the process of formal and informal land use planning, as a complement to already existing data. Stakeholders are representatives of organizations which have been or should be involved in land use planning at different levels of statutory planning. Examples are public authorities on different levels, non-governmental organizations, traditional heads and residents. Interviewees were asked to present: - their understanding of land use planning and urbanization, - the different stages of the planning process, - the roles of different institutions, - how land use priorities were considered in the planning process, - the inclusion of environmentally sensitive areas in planning, - the level of local participation in land use planning, - key spatially explicit determinants of spatial growth in the districts, and - the internal and external hindrances to successful planning.

Ghana has managed to become one of the fastest growing economies in the world with a vibrant agricultural market. The country could be a prime example of successful, pro-poor development following economic liberalisation. Though first change is visible even in traditionally impoverished areas of the north, namely the Upper East Region, hunger and chronic poverty are still prevalent. Yet, after decades of restricted public expenditure, ‘pro-poor’ agricultural policies could now be put in place, to actively improve smallholder lives in the area by various forms of government support. Similarly, foreign development agencies have recently become more engaged in supporting the local agricultural sector. All actors of current relevance have thereby pursued a value chain approach to developing the markets and livelihoods of northern Ghanaian agriculturalists. The contribution to pro-poor, ‘sustainable’ development, however, remains unclear as at now. This study is therefore concerned with how market dynamics and interventions have influenced ‘sustainable development’ of the vulnerable and poor in an emerging economy like Ghana. To do so, the study takes a look at smallholder livelihood systems in the Upper East Region of the country. Here, local peasant society is confronted with environmental changes, economic globalisation processes and interventions in agricultural value chains by the local Ministry of Food and Agriculture and foreign donors like USAID. To grasp the impact of market dynamics and interventions within this multidimensional context, this study argues for a combination of a holistic livelihood and a more specific value chain and production network approach as a useful conceptual background. Given this theoretic backdrop, data was collected for over 10 months in two villages of the Upper East, namely in Biu and Mirigu, with a focus on tomato, chili and rice, products of major significance to locals. The main methods applied in the field included qualitative as much as quantitative approaches. Farmer focus group discussions (n=37), in-depth farmer interviews and farm budgets (n=47) were the primary source of data gathered. Expert/key-informant interviews (n=70) and expert group discussions (n=2) were held. A household head survey (n=177) and an expert survey (n=25) were used to check hypotheses previously generated by qualitative methods. Primary and secondary data for tomato, chili, rice and partly also shea value chains was collected. Secondary data, such as confidential government and NGO documents, allow an insider view into farmers’ access to subsidies and support. An archive survey of church diaries dating back to 1905, enable a view on local developments in a long-term, historic perspective. This study thereby yields a number of insights with concern for conceptual approaches to the issue of understanding the pro-poor impact of markets, their dynamics and interventions within these. Livelihood analysis proved to be an indispensable approach to understanding important aspects of people-centred, human development potentials and constraints in a local environmental and institutional context. Value chain and production network analysis provided further fruitful insights on market dynamics, their structural outlines, their basic rationales and market terms for the successful participation of locals. It can therefore be concluded that both of these basic notions, either people- or market-centred approaches, should be conceptually merged to advance future research on the pro-poor effect of markets and interventions within them, to specifically address questions of what is here understood as ‘livelihood upgrading’. This study further contributes to an understanding of central aspects of local development and possible future avenues to achieving greater livelihood sustainability through government or donor development interventions. Most significantly, it became clear that ‘positive’, pro-poor market dynamics are also encountered at a local level, but cannot be made use of by spatially and socially marginalised, vulnerable and poor smallholders. That is mainly due to elite capture and corrupt practices, ultimately a question of mal-governance, a lack of grass-roots participation and a disregard for societal dimensions within which interventions are interwoven. Furthermore, neither environmental degradation nor present or future environmental changes, especially climatic ones and those with regard to soils, are accounted for. Interventions thereby remain far below their possible impact and even contribute to a loss of the natural resource base, aside the fact that they further increase an already high level socio-economic inequality. In the face of recent economic awakening, despite globalisation tendencies, future efforts in enabling sustainable development at local level must thus increasingly embrace environmental and, mostly, societal concerns in their concepts and daily practice.