Climate variability has consequences on water availability in rice farming systems. In Ghana, rice farmers in the Northern Savannah are amongst the most vulnerable to long periods of drought and erratic rainfall conditions. Within the Kumbungu district, farmers engaged in both rain-fed and irrigated rice farming are no exception. Coping with uncertain water availability conditions requires adaptive decision-making for sustained productivity in rice cropping. From an adaptive governance perspective, the extent to which formal and traditional governance arrangements enable adaptive decisions amongst rice farmers remains a key question. Using an exploratory research design, the study investigates three key questions; what water-dependent decisions rice farmers take and how these are adaptive to changing water availability conditions; what formal and informal governance arrangements rice cropping decisions are embedded in; and how existing governance arrangements enable or constrain adaptive decision-making. Rice farmers in twelve communities around the Bontanga Irrigation Scheme in the Kumbungu District in the Northern region were engaged through individual interviews and focus group discussions. The study reveals that farmers take six major water-dependent decisions throughout the cropping season; decision to or not to plant rice, land preparation, planting, weed control, fertilizer application and harvesting. Farmer decisions are most adaptive to water availability conditions during planting and fertilizer application. Both formal and traditional governance arrangements influence the extent to which farmers are able to adapt to changes in water availability conditions. The paper also reflects on the potential of hydro-climatic information and the place of Environmental Virtual Observatories (EVOs) in adaptive governance and decision-making.

气候变化对水稻耕作系统中的水供应有影响。在加纳，萨凡纳北部的稻农最容易遭受长期干旱和降雨不稳定的影响。在昆本古区，从事雨养和灌溉水稻种植的农民也不例外。应对不确定的水供应条件，需要做出自适应决策，以实现稻米作物的持续生产力。从适应性治理的角度来看，正式和传统治理安排在何种程度上能够使稻农适应性决策仍然是一个关键问题。使用探索性研究设计，该研究调查了三个关键问题。稻农会做出哪些与水有关的决定，以及如何适应不断变化的水供应条件；稻米种植决定包含在什么正式和非正式的治理安排中；以及现有的治理安排如何启用或限制自适应决策。通过个人访谈和焦点小组讨论，与北部地区昆姆邦古区邦坦加灌溉计划周围的12个社区的稻农合作。该研究表明，在整个种植季节，农民做出了六个主要的水相关决定。决定是否种植水稻，整地，种植，除草，施肥和收获。农民的决定最适合播种和施肥期间的水分供应条件。正式和传统的治理安排都会影响农民适应水供应条件变化的程度。