Sustainable Agricultural Practices (SAPs) in Northern Ghana

Abstract

Sustainable agriculture has become an important issue in the development-policy agenda in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), as a major avenue to simultaneously raise smallholder agricultural productivity and enhance climate change adaptation and mitigation. Sustainable Agricultural Practices (SAPs) are believed to play a vital role in addressing these issues while improving households' welfare. While literature provides robust evidence on the welfare impacts of SAPs in isolation, there is limited evidence on how combinations of SAPs contribute to households' welfare. Furthermore, previous experimental studies show that SAPs can reduce environmental footprints of agriculture by conserving organic matter, nitrogen fixation, increasing water infiltration, reducing soil erosion. However, the effect of SAPs on environmental outcomes such as household's reliance on environmental products and cropland expansion into forest areas is not well addressed. To shed light on these issues, we investigate the adoption and impacts of SAPs on welfare and environmental outcomes using a cross-sectional survey data collected from 421 household and 1229 plots from the Upper East Region of Ghana.<br /> The thesis comprises three primary chapters. In the first chapter, we estimate the adoption and impacts of different combinations of SAPs on crop income per acre and consumption expenditure per capita as welfare outcomes. It is found that adoption decisions are affected by household and plot characteristics. The adoption of SAPs either in isolation or in combinations significantly increases welfare. SAPs are however found to have a stronger effect when adopted as a package rather than in isolation. <br /> The effects of SAPs on households' environmental reliance are analysed in the second chapter. From the results, it is found that, on average, income from environmental resources account for about 30% of total household income. The adoption of different combinations of SAPs is found to reduce per capita environmental income by 7 to 15%. In addition, the adoption of different combinations of SAPs reduces the share of environmental income in total household income by 20 to 72%. The effect is higher when SAPs are adopted in combination than in isolation, confirming the synergistic effects of SAPs in reducing environmental pressure. <br /> In the third chapter, we analyse the effects of SAPs on cropland expansion into forest areas. It is found that about 20% of the households expanded their cropland into forest areas within the 12 months prior to the survey date and cleared about 0.21 acres on average. From the results of a two-stage churdel double hurdle model regression, we find no direct evidence of SAPs-induced cropland expansion into forest areas. <br /> In conclusion, this study provides empirical evidence on the adoption and welfare effects of different combinations of SAPs. Furthermore, this study extends the previous literature by analyzing the effects of SAPs on environmental outcomes, i.e., environmental reliance and cropland expansion into forest areas. This analysis helps us to understand if there are positive or negative 'indirect environmental benefits' of SAPs to the already known biophysical and economic benefits at the farm and household levels. It is found that SAPs have positive impacts on crop income and consumption expenditure and reduce environmental resources extraction (as a livelihood strategy). Recognition and promotion of SAPs from both welfare and environmental outcome perspectives could therefore prove worthwhile.