The study used programming methods to assess the farm-level impact of incorporating forages, including dual purpose Cajanus cajan (C. cajan), into the crop-livestock system in the Coastal Savannah Zone of Ghana. The system was modeled in GAMS and solved using linear programming. The optimal enterprise mixes and their resultant net revenues with and without the interventions and therefore the change in net revenue were obtained. The intervention was to grow forages as part of the crop-livestock system and feed them to milking cows and their calves for increased milk production and growth. The grain of the forage was used as food by the farmers, and manure from the animals was also used for crop production. The effect of policy options like educating farmers to accept and use C. cajan grain as food and thereby increase its production was analysed. The change in net revenue with incorporation of C. cajan into the system was 50 percent. A 5 percentage points change in the inclusion level of C. cajan grain in farmers’ diet and subsequent increase in its cultivation precipitated a 4 percent change in net revenue. C. cajan was not produced beyond the level required for household consumption and its main attraction seemed to be its food value. The addition of C. cajan into the crop-livestock system of the area improved farmers’ incomes. Increased cultivation of C. cajan may be dependent on the food value of the crop for the household.GAMS, Ghana, Grain, Forages, Agricultural and Food Policy, Consumer/Household Economics, Crop Production/Industries, Farm Management, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Food Security and Poverty, Institutional and Behavioral Economics, International Relations/Trade, Livestock Production/Industries, Marketing, Productivity Analysis, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Aboe, P.A.T.

Ameleke, G.Y.

Marfo-Ahenkora, E.A.

Okantah, S.A.

Sottie, E.T.

English

Research Papers in Economics

AAAE Conference Proceedings (2007) 147-150 
Did farmers’ livelihood improve? An impact assessment of incorporating forages into the 
crop-livestock system in the coastal savannah zone of Ghana 
Ameleke, G.Y.,  Okantah S.A., Sottie, E.T., Marfo-Ahenkora E. A & Aboe, P.A.T. 
CSIR-Animal Research Institute, P.O. Box AH 20 Achimota, Accra, Ghana 
Abstract 
The study used programming methods to assess the farm-level impact of incorporating forages, including dual 
purpose Cajanus cajan (C. cajan), into the crop-livestock system in the Coastal Savannah Zone of Ghana. The 
system was modeled in GAMS and solved using linear programming. The optimal enterprise mixes and their 
resultant net revenues with and without the interventions and therefore the change in net revenue were obtained. 
The intervention was to grow forages as part of the crop-livestock system and feed them to milking cows and 
their calves for increased milk production and growth. The grain of the forage was used as food by the farmers, 
and manure from the animals was also used for crop production. The effect of policy options like educating 
farmers to accept and use C. cajan grain as food and thereby increase its production was analysed. The change in 
net revenue with incorporation of C. cajan into the system was 50 percent. A 5 percentage points change in the 
inclusion level of C. cajan grain in farmers’ diet and subsequent increase in its cultivation precipitated a 4 percent 
change in net revenue. C. cajan was not produced beyond the level required for household consumption and its 
main attraction seemed to be its food value. The addition of C. cajan into the crop-livestock system of the area 
improved farmers’ incomes. Increased cultivation of C. cajan may be dependent on the food value of the crop for 
the household. 
Keywords: GAMS, Ghana, Grain, Forages 
 
Introduction 
The people of the Coastal Savannah zone of Ghana are 
mostly farmers who practise mixed farming. They 
keep livestock including cattle, which serves as a store 
of wealth (Kaya et al., 2000, Ouma et al., 2003); 
however, they may obtain regular incomes from and 
crop, and milk production. Milk income usually 
dwindles or is nil in the dry season when grass dries 
up. Forages have been introduced into crop-livestock 
systems and used as feed for animals (Atwal and Asare 
1980, Inaizumi et al., 1999). Such feed 
supplementation increases weight gain (Oddoye et al., 
2002), milk, and manure yields of cows and 
consequently crop yield, when manure is applied to 
them. Between 2003 and 2005 the CSIR-Animal 
Research Institute, Ghana, and some partners 
introduced forages into some communities of the 
Coastal Savannah of Ghana. This provided herbage for 
animal feed supplementation, and grains which may 
also be consumed by farmers to improve household 
food security and nutrition. The primary objective of 
this study was therefore to assess the farm level impact 
of the technologies introduced. The specific objectives 
were 1. to estimate the change in net returns for a 
representative farm with and without the interventions 
and 2. to analyse the effect of promoting cajanus seed 
consumption by farmers on net returns. The impact 
envisaged is at farm-level, as the new technologies 
were limited to only two communities and involved 24 
farmers. Therefore, the Benefit Cost Analysis (BCA) 
or linear programming could be used for the current 
study. In addition to being based on activity budgets, 
like the BCA, linear programming factors in farmers’ 
behaviour or response to new technologies (Rich et al., 
2005). Hence the linear programming was used for the 
analysis.  
Materials and Methods 
The base scenario 
The objective function. Farmers maximize net returns 
cash income (Z), that is income from cash 
commodities less labour and non-labour costs of 
producing both cash and food commodities (equation 
1).  
Z = ∑d∑jpdjydjxj-  ∑i∑  jqijrijxj-  ∑a∑  jlajlpajxj  - 
∑i∑jqhihrhihxfh -∑a∑hlhahlphahxfh     (1) 
The indices j,h,d,a  and i  denote cash commodities, 
food commodities, products derived from the 
commodities, type of labour activity, and type of non-
labour activity, respectively. For cash commodities, p 
is price, y is yield, x is area cultivated, q is quantity of Incorporating Forages into Crop-Livestock Systems 
148  AAAE Ghana Conference 2007 
non-labour input used, r is price of non-labour input, l 
is quantity of labour used per area, and lp is the price 
of labour used. For food commodities, xf is area 
cultivated, qh is quantity of non-labour input used, rh 
is unit cost of non-labour input, lh is quantity of labour 
used per area, lhp is price of labour used per area. In 
the base scenario, maize, cassava, pepper, tomatoes 
and okro were considered. These could both be cash or 
food commodites. Grains, crop residues, and milk 
could be obtained from each commodity. Labour was 
used for planting, weeding, harvesting, processing, 
preservation, feeding of cows and calves, and applying 
chemicals on crops.  
The constraints 
Net return was mazimised subject to capital, and 
labour availability, and food security requirements (see 
for instance, Abdoulaye and Deboer 2000). Food 
security is achieved when the total nutrient availability 
(N) for a year (365 days) is greater or equal to the 
household demand (Equation 2). 
Nv = ∑h nvhgyhxfh ≥ ∑gcvgsg 365    (2) 
where n is the amount of nutrient available in a kg of 
edible portion of commodity, gy is the yield of food 
commodities (kg), c is the consumption per person per 
day, and s is the household size. The indices vh, and 
vg, denote the amount of nutrient in food 
commodities, and nutrient requirement per person in 
age class g. Nutrients (v) considered comprised 
energy, protein, vitamin C, calcium, iron, vitamin A, 
and niacin. Total household food consumption (F) was 
defined as F = ∑hgyhxfh , and a minimum level (m) of 
each food commodity is consumed as part of the diet 
(equation 3).  
gyhxfh-mhF≥0      ( 3 )  
Labour availability (for all commodities) could exceed 
or equal labour demand (equation 4).  
∑a∑ jlajxj  + ∑a∑hlhahxfh ≤ ∑gfgsg 80   (4) 
where f denotes the labour equivalence for age 
categories of adult male, adult female and a child. 
Eighty (80) days of work was required per person per 
annum. It was assumed that the farmers had access to 
only equity capital. The baseline survey results 
showed that on the average farmers cultivated 5ha of 
land. Ploughing of land was a major activity for which 
cash was required and without that one could not 
cultivate much land. The amount required to cultivate 
the 5 ha (at 750,000 cedis per ha) was thus made the 
maximum they could get. Thus, capital requirement 
could not exceed this amount (equation 5). 
∑ j750xj  + ∑h750xfh ≤ 3750    (5) 
Non-negativity constraints were placed on the areas of 
cash and food commodities cultivated, as well as total 
consumption such that x ≥ 0; xf ≥ 0; F ≥ 0 .  
Integration of cajanus with livestock 
With the introduction of cajanus, the farmer had to 
reallocate his resources in order to accommodate the 
new enterprise. New activities, and enterprise herein 
called “Caj-milk”, were introduced, for instance, 
cajanus leaves were harvested, preserved and fed to 
milking cows, which led to increased milk production 
in cows and greater calf weight gain. Cajanus grain 
was also harvested and used as food. Thus, in the 
scenario for integration of cajanus with livestock, 
these extra benefits and costs were added to the 
expression for net returns in equation 1. The benefit 
from cajanus residue feeding was obtained by valuing 
the portion of additional milk production attributed to 
the residue feeding.  
Impact 
The difference in the net returns with and without the 
new technology constituted the impact on farmers’ 
incomes and livelihood. The scenarios with and 
without the intervention were modeled and solved 
using linear programming for the optimal allocation of 
resources to the various enterprises, and the 
consequent net returns. Increase in the production of 
the commodity was not large enough to depress its 
market price. Thus it was assumed that the same price 
levels prevailed in each scenario. The impact of the 
promotion of cajanus grain as food on the incomes of 
households (through increased cultivation for food and 
herbage and thus milk and calf weight gains) was 
assessed by assuming that the level of inclusion of 
cajanus grains in diets increased from 15 percent to 20 
percent as a result of some policy action like education 
and training. 
The data 
Data on cajanus seed requirement, biomass and grain 
yields, levels of supplementation, and milk yield 
response to on-farm supplementation were obtained 
from on-farm trials. Amount of nutrients in 
commodities were obtained from the FAO Database 
on food composition tables for use in Africa. Nutrient 
requirements per person were also obtained from Ameleke, G.Y. et al. 
Advancing Technical Change in African Agriculture  149 
literature. Other input requirements including number 
of ploughings, planting materials, chemicals, labour 
requirements, and input prices were obtained from a 
combination of field survey and literature. Average 
household size and proportion of staple in food bundle 
were obtained from field survey.  
Results and Discussion 
The allocation of land to each food commodity was 
usually under 1ha (Table 1) in all the 3 scenarios 
modeled (without cajanus, with cajanus, and with 
cajanus utilization increased). Results of the baseline 
survey, however, showed that allocation of land to 
cassava and pepper were slightly more than 1 ha. The 
amount of land allocated to pepper produced for cash 
increased when the amount of land allocated to 
cajanus increased. In the scenarios modeled, pepper 
was the only commodity produced for cash and the 
area cultivated increased from 2.85 ha in the base 
scenario to 3.65 in the scenario with cajanus, and 
further to 3.75 when increase in cajanus utilization 
caused further cultivation. The opportunity cost for 
shifting a ha of land from pepper to other crops were 
the loss of the following amount in thousands of cedis: 
maize (5740), cassava (7940), cajanus-milk enterprise 
(3395), tomatoes (4340), and okro (5330). The net 
returns for the base scenario (without cajanus), the 
scenario with cajanus-livestock interation, and the 
scenario where utilization of cajanus increased were 
23,290,783 cedis, 35,032,238 cedis, and 36,557,924 
cedis respectively. Generally, the land allocation to 
commodities observed in the field (baseline survey), 
the modeled scenarios of without cajanus, with 
cajanus, and with cajanus utilization increased, were 
not too different, which suggests that the models are 
valid. Pepper was the only commodity produced for 
the market in the modeled situations, because it had 
the highest net returns. Shifting a ha of land from 
pepper to the production of maize, cassava, cajanus, 
tomatoes, and okro could reduce net returns by 574, 
794, 340, 434, 533 thousand cedis respectively. The 
production of cajanus appeared to release more land 
for the cultivation cash commodities. Cajanus was not 
produced for the market and its main attraction seemed 
to be its food value. The introduction of cajanus into 
the livestock system, however, increased net returns by 
50 percent. This agrees somewhat with Inaizumi et. al. 
(1999) who found that farmers obtained substantial 
cash income from the adoption of dual purpose 
cowpea and considered it more dependable than other  
crops. This is also consistent with Kaya et. al. (2000) 
who noted that the generation of multiple benefits 
from fodder crops, including more milk production 
through feeding fodder to cows, is required to make 
fodder cultivation attractive. Increasing the inclusion 
level of cajanus grains in the diet from 15 percent to 
20 percent (5 percentage points) led to a 4 percent 
increase in net returns. 
Conclusions 
The integration of cajanus with livestock led to 
increase in net returns, thus impact was positive. 
Increased utilization of cajanus improved net returns. 
References 
Abdoulaye, T., Lowenberg-DeBoer, J., 2000. 
Intensification of Sahelian farming systems: 
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digestibility of buffel grass and gamba grass. 
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V.M., Adesina, A.A, Tarawali, S., 1999. 
Adoption and impact of dry-season dual purpose 
cowpea in the semiarid zone of Nigeria. 
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Kaya, B, Hildebrand, P.E.,  Nair, P.K.R., 2000. 
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150  AAAE Ghana Conference 2007 
animal disease outbreaks. Rev . Sci,tech. off.int. 
epiz, 2005 24 (3), 833-845. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Table 1. Allocation of land to crops food commodities (in hectares) 
 Maize  Pepper  Cassava  Caj-milk  tomatoes  Okro 
Baseline (Ha)  0.83  1.13  1.45  -  0.44  0.10 
Base scenario (Ha)  0.77  0.22  0.56  -  0.37  0.23 
With Cajanjus (Ha)  0.31  0.12 0.26 0.32  0.21  0.13 
More Cajanus Use  0.28  0.11 0.19 0.26  0.18  0.11 

A review of economic tools for the assessment of Incorporating Forages into Crop-Livestock

Adoption and impact of dry-season dual purpose cowpea in the semiarid zone of Nigeria. International Institute of Tropical Agriculture,

Asare, E.O.,1980. Effects of stage of maturity on chemical composition and apparent digestibility of buffel grass and gamba grass.

Intensification of Sahelian farming systems: evidence form Niger.

Modeling changes in farming systems with the adoption of improved fallows in southern Mali.

Response of cattle to dry season supplementation of urea-amoniated ricestraw of untreated rice straw fed with Grifonia simplicifolia or wheat bran.

Did farmers’ livelihood improve? An impact assessment of incorporating forages into the crop-livestock system in the coastal savannah zone of Ghana

Did farmers’ livelihood improve? An impact assessment of incorporating forages into the crop-livestock system in the coastal savannah zone of Ghana

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