Agricultural intensification as a strategy for climate mitigation in Ghana

In Ghana, as in many other tropical landscapes of West Africa, the expansion of extensive low input agriculture has resulted in significant deforestation with concomitant loss of biodiversity and greenhouse gas emissions. Of the many crops grown in Ghana, cocoa has had the largest expansion in area extent and is a strategic crop for the country's development. The story of cocoa in Ghana in recent years is a tale of two very different expansion episodes—the first episode witnessed an increase in the area cultivated by smallholders using extensive cocoa technology and took place in the 90s; the second episode has consisted of intensive cocoa technology adoption by smallholders induced by policy actions and growing land pressures in the decade of the 00s. A case study of cocoa intensification and the Cocobod High Tech program was conducted by the Sustainable Tree Crops Program of IITA in 2011 to better understand the potential of the intensified perennial tree production systems as a potential tool for addressing rural poverty and climate change mitigation. The objectives of this study include: 1. Quantification of the factors underlying increased cocoa yields and incomes in Bia (Juabeso). 2. Estimation of the rates of deforestation post intensification and the area of deforestation and forest degradation mitigated because of the adoption of intensified land use systems. 3. Analysis of the institutions required for the sustainable intensification of cocoa farming systems. 4. Examination of the characteristics and predictors of households adopting the intensified production of cocoa. 5. Analysis of the economic and environmental tradeoffs between shaded and full sun cocoa

A Green Revolution in the West African cocoa belt

STCP tools for the rehabilitation of West African cocoa farms Cacao tree stocks in West Africa are mainly established from seeds procured from farmers’ fields. This planting material lacks the disease tolerance and yield potential of the hybrid seed. Productivity is also affected by the old age of West Africa’s tree stock. Replacing and rehabilitating the tree stocks of West Africa is fundamental to the achievement and long-run sustainability of a cocoa Brown Revolution. The STCP has developed a Planting, Replanting and Diversification (PRD) training package to provide farmers the knowledge and technical skills needed to rehabilitate old cocoa farms or reclaim degraded areas using hybrids. However, a major constraint to hybrid adoption is a lack of access to hybrid seeds. To overcome this constraint, STCP introduced a Seed Brokerage System (SBS) for the collective acquisition of hybrid seeds by farmer field school groups from government production units. An initial evaluation of 375 randomly selected trainees revealed that the mean participant had successfully established 0.4 ha of hybrid cocoa seedling with an 81% seedling survival rate after two dry seasons. Approximately half of the surveyed trainees had replanted old farms while half had established new farms on degraded fallow land. The SBS also brokered timber seedlings for farmers desiring to include high-value timber (Terminalia ivorensis and T. superb) as permanent shade in their production system. The mean participant reported the successful establishment of 12 timber seedlings which is equivalent to 30 trees per hectare. Farmers favored the SBS innovation and are seeking its continuance

Farmers’ perceptions of practices and constraints in cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) chips production in rural Cameroon

A survey aimed at collecting information on practices and constraints in the production of cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) chips, a transformed cassava product obtained through fermentation anddrying of its fresh roots was carried out in 45 villages located in three geographical regions (Yaoundé, Mbalmayo, and Ebolowa) of the humid forest zone of Cameroon. A structured questionnaire to interviewfarmers was employed. Out of 225 farmers sampled, 212 (94%) relying on chips as food and source of income were women. Overall, 51% of all farmers marketed chips locally. Three distinct forms of chipssuch as broken pulp (62%), balls (25%), and pellets (13%) were cited as being locally produced by farmers. These were obtained either through air fermentation (cassava pellets), or submergedfermentation (broken pulps and balls), using starters or fermenting agents (31% of responses) or without using them (69%). Chips were mainly home-stored in jute and or/plastic bags (43% ofresponses), open or closed containers (36%), or on devices hanging over the fireplace (21% of responses) for as long as 180 days. Dark spots or discolouration occurring as a result of chips damagewere reported by the majority of respondents (82%) as frequent on cassava chips. These were related to insufficient drying (42%), the use of infected cassava roots by plant pathogenic microbes from thefields (12%), or too long drying of chips under sun light (11% of responses). To avoid dark spots and/or discolouration, 112 farmers out of a total of 185 who were aware about chips damage, practiced sundrying, and 21% of this total dried their chips over the fireplace to control chips damage. Pests and diseases problems (47% of responses), mainly related to the incidence of Stictococcus vayssiereiRichard (Homoptera: Stictococcidae) and lack of market (26%) were cited by farmers as the most important constraints in cassava chips production. From the results obtained, this study outlined thatthe potential utilization of cassava and its derived products for industrial purposes is not yet exploited in the locations investigated. Additionally, the study also raised concerns about the safety and hygiene associated with traditionally processed and stored cassava chips in the investigated areas

Towards a research agenda on tracking the contribution of agricultural research to poverty reduction in Africa: the case of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture

Like all public organizations concerned with research for development, IITA aims to contribute to poverty reduction goals in the developing world through improved agricultural technologies. IITA’s refreshed strategy articulates a major target of lifting 11 million people out of poverty by 2020. This paper discusses the analytical strategies for tracking the number of people lifted out of poverty through the contributions of IITA’s Research-for-Development (R4D) initiatives. The paper documents the evolution and underlying impact pathways of R4D programs carried out by IITA during the past 45 years and reviews the literature on impact evaluation of agricultural research. The paper then identifies and discusses the challenges, opportunities, and strategies which translate into a set of research agendas for tracking IITA’s contributions to poverty reduction

Ecoregional research in Africa: learning lessons from IITA's Benchmark Area Approach

Ecoregional research has the potential to help address some of the huge challenges facing agriculture in developing countries by developing technologies that work under different agro-ecological conditions, and the processes by which these technologies can be adapted to work in other areas with similar conditions. The CGIAR system has been developing ecoregional research as a new paradigm for over a decade. In this paper we evaluate one of the most ambitious of these initiatives called the Benchmark Area Approach (BAA) pioneered by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture. We evaluate the BAA against nine good practice criteria for ecoregional research, finding that the approach is delivering, or has the potential to deliver, on all nine. Many of the lessons learnt from this evaluation will be relevant to current and future attempts to undertake co-ordinated multi-locational research for developmen

Carbon storage in Ghanaian cocoa ecosystems

Background: The recent inclusion of the cocoa sector as an option for carbon storage necessitates the need to quantify the C stocks in cocoa systems of Ghana. Results: Using farmers’ fields, the carbon (C) stocks in shaded and unshaded cocoa systems selected from the Eastern (ER) and Western (WR) regions of Ghana were measured. Total ecosystem C (biomass C + soil C to 60 cm depth) ranged from 81.8 to 153.9 Mg C/ha. The bulk (~89 %) of the systems’ C stock was stored in the soils. The total C stocks were higher in the WR (137.8 ± 8.6 Mg C/ha) than ER (95.7 ± 8.6 Mg C/ha). Conclusion: Based on the cocoa cultivation area of 1.45 million hectares, the cocoa sector in Ghana potentially could store 118.6–223.2 Gg C in cocoa systems with cocoa systems aged within 30 years regardless of shade management. Thus, the decision to include the cocoa sector in the national carbon accounting emissions budget of Ghana is warranted

Balancing agricultural development and environmental objectives: assessing tradeoffs in the humid tropics.

This volume so far has presented numerous issues, opportunities, and concerns from specific national and thematic perspectives on tropical forests and deforestation. This chapter attempts to pull these together through analysis of tradeoffs across those various perspectives