Implementing agroforesty in Ghana
Years of field research is showing the potential of dynamic agroforestry to help create diverse, healthy cocoa farms. A recent workshop brought local stakeholders in Ghana together to propose solutions to increase the adoption of agroforestry on farms.
The Republic of Ghana is the second-largest cocoa producer globally. Cocoa is the mainstay of the agricultural sector of Ghana, accounting for about one-third of the country's export revenue. However, the production of cocoa used to make chocolate is often unsustainable. Monoculture cocoa farms must contend with increasing disease and drought and degrading soil conditions.
A multi-year project led by ETH Zurich researchers has been investigating whether dynamic agroforestry can help create diverse, healthy cocoa farms and at the same time be an attractive solution for farmers.
The project, Dynamic agroforestry systems for sustainable intensification of cocoa production in West Africa, is led by Christian Andres, a postdoctoral researcher in the Sustainable Agroecosystems Group at ETH Zurich. The project has assessed different agroforestry practices in Ghana in terms of their environmental and socio-economic sustainability. Researchers also talked to hundreds of farmers about the profitability and why they may or may not adopt dynamic agroforestry.
To increase the feasibility of these practices for local farmers, Christian Andres organized a multi-stakeholder workshop in Kumasi, Ghana, entitled “Dynamic agroforestry (DAF) with cocoa in Ghana – results from four years of research and their implications for sustainable cocoa production in Ghana.” The workshop in May 2022 brought together farmers with NGOs, researchers, extension specialists and license buying companies (LBCs).
One objective of the workshop was to understand the complexity of problems around agroforestry from the perspective of different stakeholders. The workshop also aimed to create a set of proposed solutions to increase the adoption of agroforestry, as well the necessary changes that must come about in order to boost the implementation of those solutions.
After the input presentations in the morning, participants discussed stakeholder-specific needs and challenges as well as possible solutions and the respective changes needed in different group exercises. The outcome of the workshop was a consensus that more collaboration and mutual respect among all involved stakeholders is needed to enhance the adoption of agroforestry. Bringing stakeholders closer together for facilitated information exchange will be crucial to build this trust, which may be achieved through the establishment of both a virtual platform dedicated to agroforestry, as well as demonstration farms across the cocoa growing regions by collaborative efforts of Ghana Cocoa Board, NGOs, LBCs and farmers. It will be especially important to involve the traditional leaders (chiefs) in those platforms, as their consent is needed to ensure that the word will spread to the concerned farmers.
The multi-stakeholder workshop was an excellent opportunity to understand the complexity of the problems around agroforestry from the perspective of different stakeholders, and to propose potential feasible solutions along with the necessary changes to boost their implementation. The report of the workshop will serve as a basis for follow-up discussions aimed at integrating the proposed solutions and necessary changes into existing programs and policies.
The hope of the researchers is that the field results and the workshop are useful for the elaboration of an implementation action plan to boost the adoption of agroforestry in general and dynamic agroforestry in particular in Ghana.
Researcher Christian Andres marking pegs with bright colours for demarcation of plots where soil sensors were installed for long-term assessments of soil moisture and temperature.
This project is funded in part by the World Food System Center program Sustainability in Food Value Chains.