Abstract
Several state and non-state organizations are promoting organic agriculture as a climate smart option among cocoa farmers in the Ashanti region of Ghana. In this study, flora diversity and livelihoods position in organic and conventional farming were measured and compared. The experiment included 32 households with young plantations. Jaccard similarity, Shannon (H′) and Simpson (D) diversity indices were measured to assess species similarity, abundance, evenness and dominance. The sustainable livelihoods indicators were food security, income, vulnerability and well-being. The results showed that the species are quite similar. The H′ index for organic farms was slightly higher (0.808) than that of conventional farms (0.762); the D index (0.051) for organic was better than the conventional (0.084). The organic farmers studied had better sustainable livelihoods outcomes than the conventional farmers. Since organic farming has more biodiversity, farmers should be encouraged to practise it to improve livelihoods outcomes and enhance climate change mitigation.
Highlights
Several state and non-state organizations are promoting organic agriculture as a climate smart option among cocoa farmers in the Ashanti region of Ghana
The government of Ghana introduced a number of interventions including extension information dissemination, the Cocoa Disease and Pest Control (CODAPEC) programme, the Cocoa Hi-tech initiative programme, the payment of the remunerative producer prices and the bonus payment scheme as a means of rewarding farmers’ effort in improving yields [28]
The situation can be explained away: Some of the farms in the two communities were on the conversion state so there will be traces of chemical herbicides and fertilizers applied in the past
Summary
Several state and non-state organizations are promoting organic agriculture as a climate smart option among cocoa farmers in the Ashanti region of Ghana. The Cocoa Hi-tech initiative programme was to boost the intensive use of fertilizers to replenish soil fertility, the application of pesticides on cocoa and the adoption of improved planting material to improve the productivity of cocoa farms [22, 23]. This conventional farming system, though a growth and. Water smartness involves water conservation practices such as mulching; catch cropping fixesnitrogen and the application of organic
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