Vegetable diversification in cocoa-based farming systems Ghana

Abstract

Background: As part of dynamic livelihood coping strategies, some farmers in Ghana's cocoa belt have diversified away from traditional cocoa production to other high-value crops including vegetables, to the extent of diversifying within vegetables. This study assessed the extent of diversification of vegetables among farmers in Ghana's cocoa belt and determined the factors that explain the variability in the diversification indices. A small-sample-size formula (http://www.surveysystem.com/sscalc.htm) that was based on an estimated population of the sample was used to arrive at 621 farmer respondents from the Ashanti and Western Regions of Ghana. A combination of proportional and random sampling was employed to select farmers for the interview.Results: Marital status of the household head and total land endowment were the major determinants of diversification. Conclusions:Unlike most other studies found in the crop diversification literature, this study used econometric data reduction procedures to select the appropriate diversification indices, and selected the most appropriate fractional regression functional form from the four modelled. Vegetable diversification offers great potential for improving livelihoods of cocoa-based farm households in the study area.

Assessing Climate Smart Agriculture and Its Determinants of Practice in Ghana: A Case of the Cocoa Production System

“…Such farm households earn additional incomes directly from the sale of food products including plantain, yams, fruits, honey, vegetables etc., and indirectly from monies saved that would have been otherwise used to buy food [41]. Furthermore, through agroforestry practices that increase carbon stocks on-farm and hence reduce GHG emissions, CSA/Agroecology provides a potential opportunity for additional household incomes from carbon credits through the result-based national REDD+ programme [42].…”

“…However, this potential raises questions on equity concerning how farmers would be fairly rewarded from carbon credits and other related benefits for achieving mitigation benefits. This is because there is not yet clarity on key issues around the development of a fair and transparent benefit sharing scheme and carbon rights definition, land and tree tenure and gender mainstreaming mechanisms are still outstanding, which have dominated the REDD+ implementation discourse [41].…”

Does crop diversity contribute to dietary diversity? Evidence from integration of vegetables into maize-based farming systems

“…Integrating vegetables into maize-based farming systems as a means to augment household income is appropriate due to their high farm gate values per unit land and economic access to diverse food groups [7]. More diverse production systems may contribute to more diverse household diets for farming communities [12]. Reducing the prevalence of micronutrient deficiencies will not be sustainable if food consumption is not diversified [31,61].…”

“…Some studies have shown that an increase in household dietary diversity is associated with higher socioeconomic status and household food security measured in terms of household food energy availability ( [1,12,15,23,27,39,43,45,58,20]). Household dietary diversity is also associated with monthly per capita calorie availability from non-staples for all households [23] and household expenditure which is a proxy for household wealth and well-being [58].…”

“…More recently, a few studies (for example, [12,47,55,57]) have attempted to establish a linkage between land use or cropping pattern and dietary diversity of households as well as the contribution of biodiversity to dietary diversity [10]. In this light, Jones et al [27] examined the relationship between farm diversity and dietary diversity among households and concluded that there is a strong relationship between dietary diversity and farm diversity in Malawi based on a national representative sample survey implemented from March 2010 to March 2011 as part of a World Bank Living Standards Assessment study.…”