Abstract
Adoption of smallholder plantations in off-forest reserve among farmers has always been a challenge. Using the qualitative methods and survey among 193 smallholder plantations farmers through simple random sampling from six communities in the Tano North District, the study aimed at exploring the drivers for smallholder plantation forestry in the Tano North District of the Brong-Ahafo Forest Region of Ghana. The findings showed that as age of farmers increased, the number of plantations owned reduced. Surprisingly, all the plantations owned by farmers were teak. In addition, a significant relationship between gender of farmers and factors that motivated them to establish smallholder plantations was identified. Furthermore, the relationship between gender and land tenure systems was significant. The study identified low price for teak wood, absence of standard price for teak wood, decline in food crop yield due to canopy closure of teak stands, lack of capital to invest in teak plantation, lack of extension services from Forest Services Division and wildfire as the factors that militate against smallholder plantation forestry. The motivating factors for smallholder plantation forestry were financial returns, plantation as collateral to secure loans, hobby and construction material for subsistence use. The identified drivers if taken into account during the implementation of smallholder forestry could enhance its viability and adoption. Keywords: gender, land tenure, land size, age, militating factors, relationship DOI: 10.7176/JNSR/10-6-04 Publication date: March 31 st 2020
Highlights
Forests on the earth’s surface continue to be important for their unique hardwoods and non-wood forest products and for protecting the most precious parts of the Earth’s biodiversity (Lawrence, 1999). Kuntz and Siegert (1999) reported that forests are of great importance for local climatic processes since they play a crucial role in climate regulation and constitute one of the major carbon sinks
Factors militating against smallholder plantation The factors that were identified to militate against smallholder plantations (SHP) were low price for teak wood (60.6%), absence of standard price for teak woods (17.1%), decline in food crop yield due to canopy closure of teak stands (7.8%), lack of capital to invest in teak plantation (6.2 %), lack of extension services from Forest Services Division (5.2%) and Wildfire (3.1%) (Figure 3)
Generally, the study showed that demographic characteristics such as age and gender could influence the adoption SHP
Summary
Forests on the earth’s surface continue to be important for their unique hardwoods and non-wood forest products and for protecting the most precious parts of the Earth’s biodiversity (Lawrence, 1999). Kuntz and Siegert (1999) reported that forests are of great importance for local climatic processes since they play a crucial role in climate regulation and constitute one of the major carbon sinks. Kuntz and Siegert (1999) reported that forests are of great importance for local climatic processes since they play a crucial role in climate regulation and constitute one of the major carbon sinks. These benefits are under threat because of deforestation and forest degradation (Lambin, 1994). FAO (2001) mentioned that from 1990-2000, the loss in forest area in Africa was 5.3 million hectares annually, corresponding to an annual rate of 0.8%. From 2000-2010, the forest area loss was 3.4 million hectares annually, corresponding to an annual deforestation rate of 0.5%. In Ghana, the annual deforestation rate is 2.1 % per year which corresponds to an average annual forest loss of 115,000 ha (FAO, 2010)
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