Toward sustainable land resources management with agroforestry: empirical evidence from the Sunyani west district of Ghana

Abstract

In Ghana, unsustainable management of land resources has led to degradation of the natural resource base leading to food and income insecurities. In this study, we hypothesized that deliberate and planned integration of trees to enhance assets on farms via agroforestry land-use systems should positively influence land resources and thereby enhance food and income securities via wide adoption in the six target communities. To achieve this, we (1) assessed farmers’ awareness and adoption of agroforestry; and (2) related adoption of agroforestry to reduced forest degradation and forest fire susceptibility. Satellite images were acquired and classified detection was used to determine changes in land use and land cover. GIS tools were used to develop a wildfire risk model and to create a map of the study area. Baseline socio-economic surveys were conducted in 2007 and in 2013 to determine the overall impact of the project. The surveys revealed that households (1475) practicing various agroforestry technologies significantly increased to 233 ha in 2013 from 56 ha in 2007. Grasslands were converted to agricultural land-use resulting in 4225 ha (192% increase) of agricultural land cover. Forest fire incidences were also reduced from 40 fires to less than 2 in 2013. The study has shown that increased value-addition via high value tree species integration such as fruit, timber and fodder trees in the respective household farms not only enhanced wider agroforestry adoption but also contributed positively towards the expansion of agricultural lands and reduced fire incidences.