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Do farmers’ perceptions and socio-economic factors drive cocoa agroforestry and sustainable soil carbon management practices in West Africa?

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Abstract

We evaluated the farmer’s local knowledge and perceptions of sustainable cocoa agroforestry and sustainable soil carbon management in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire using a social survey research methodology. We employed in-depth interviewing and focus group discussions to solicit information from identified key stakeholders in the cocoa supply chain focusing on the perception of sustainable cocoa agroforestry and soil carbon management. Our results revealed that about 83% and 50.5% of smallholder cocoa farmers from Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana respectively practiced agroforestry on their farms. The respondents, however, had limited knowledge about the term agroforestry and were also not very much aware of soil carbon management. Also, about 53% and 22% of the respondents from Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana perceived agroforestry practice as better than practicing cocoa monoculture. The results further revealed that most of the cocoa farmers in these study areas had limited knowledge of the approaches or strategies to achieve sustainable cocoa agroforestry and soil carbon management on their farms. At the same time, the industry’s stakeholders had different perceptions about the approaches or strategies to achieve these. Our results also revealed that educational level was the only socio-economic factor that influenced the farmer’s awareness of agroforestry and soil organic carbon. This study thus suggests the need for appropriate training and education for smallholder cocoa farmers, and harmonization of the understanding among different stakeholder groups along the cocoa supply chain of common strategies to adopt to achieve sustainable cocoa production that addresses low productivity, biodiversity loss and carbon emission within the smallholder cocoa production system in West Africa.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the West African Service Centre of Climate Change and Adapted Land use for funding this study. We thank stakeholders from the ministries of Agriculture, and Land, Forestry and Environment of Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire for providing all the support during the work. We also thank our cocoa farmers for their support.

Funding

This study was supported by the West African Service Centre of Climate Change and Adapted Land use scholarship programme funded by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research and supplemented by Climcocoa during the paper writeup.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. West African Science Service Centre On Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL) Graduate Research Program On Climate Change and Biodiversity, Université Félix Houphouёt-Boigny, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire

    Florence Jessica Kumah & Daouda Koné

  2. Département de Formation Et de Recherche Agriculture Et Ressources Animales (DFR-ARA), Institut National Polytechnique Félix Houphouёt-Boigny (INP-HB), Yamoussoukro, Côte d’Ivoire

    Abo Kouabenan

  3. World Agroforestry Centre, P O Box 30677, Nairobi, Kenya

    Aster Gebrekirstos

  4. West African Science Service Centre On Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL). Department Capacity Building, CCSIR Office Complex, 6 Agostino Neto Road Airport Residential Area PMB CT504, Accra, Ghana

    Daouda Koné

  5. Forest and Horticultural Crops Research Centre, University of Ghana, Kade, Legon, Ghana

    Samuel Adjei-Nsiah

  6. International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, CSIR Campus PMB LG 56 Legon, Accra, Ghana

    Samuel Adjei-Nsiah

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  1. Florence Jessica Kumah
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Contributions

Florence Jessica Kumah participated in the collection and analysis of the data obtained in this study as well as the writing of the manuscript. Abo Kouabenan, Aster Gebrekirstos, Daouda Koné and Samuel Adjei-Nsiah guided and supervised the project, reviewed and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Florence Jessica Kumah.

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Kumah, F.J., Kouabenan, A., Gebrekirstos, A. et al. Do farmers’ perceptions and socio-economic factors drive cocoa agroforestry and sustainable soil carbon management practices in West Africa?. Agroforest Syst 98, 797–815 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10457-023-00950-z

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