The government of Ghana and Non-governmental Organizations have constructed a number of small scale irrigation dams and dug-outs in the Sissala West District of the Upper West Region. The purpose of the small scale irrigation dams is to give irrigation farmers access to enough water during the dry season. The variation of rainfall and high temperatures poses serious threat to dams, hence making it difficult for the reservoirs to have enough water for irrigation activities. The study investiga...
Climate change has become a well-known global issue which has the greatest impact on agriculture which is the mainstay of the people in Nadowli-Kaleo District. Although climate change affects everyone but its impacts are differently distributed among males and females. This study analyzed the gender differentiated impacts of climate change on agricultural production and the adaptation strategies by the farmers in the Nadowli-Kaleo District. The study adopted both qualitative and quantitative ...
This study investigated farmers willingness to pay (WTP) for private irrigation in Nandom district, Ghana. The study randomly sampled 236 farmers and analyzed data using descriptive statistics and ordered logit regression model. Results revealed that 94.5 percent of the farmers were WTP for private irrigation services with a mean of 35.83 cedis. Farmers’ WTP is determined by income, age, farm size, engagement in an off-farm occupation, labour hours invested in farm operation, yield losses e...
In Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) the technological advances of the Green Revolution (GR) have not been very successful. However, the efforts being made to re-introduce the revolution call for more socio-economic research into the adoption and the effects of the new technologies. The paper discusses an investigation on the effects of GR technology adoption on poverty among households in Ghana. Maximum likelihood estimation of a poverty model within the framework of Heckman's two stage method of cor...
The case of rice import liberalization in Ghana is an interesting and highly distinctive one. One of the policies of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) is to support an increase in local rice production in order to reduce imports by about 30% as part of efforts to promote food sufficiency. Its strategy aims to increase mechanization, the cultivation of inland valleys, effective and efficient use of existing irrigation systems and further development of irrigation. Ironically, this po...
Traditional medicine has been in practice in Ghana for several decades and the patronage is high. Several people use it and believe in it. However, traditional medicine in the Builsa North District is not standardized; hence, the research was to investigate the problems to standardization, and marketing of traditional herbal medicine in the Builsa North District in the upper east region of Ghana. Focus was on the discovery of the raw materials for the medicine, the processing and preparation ...
Abstract Rainwater harvesting has been practiced among smallholder farmers for centuries in many parts of the world. Recently, it has gained more attention due to the reported increasing water demand and the need for sustainable water management. Drawing on data from a cross sectional survey of 384 household heads (HH), the research study explored the determinants for rainwater harvesting among smallholder farmers in Murang’a County, Kenya. Multistage random sampling technique was employed...
Abstract Crop productivity in most smallholder farming systems in Sub-Saharan Africa experience low use of soil amendment resources, low and erratic rainfall, frequent dry spells, and droughts. Rain-fed agriculture has a high crop yield potential if rainfall and soil nutrient input resources are utilized effectively. Thus, in 2011, we set up an on-farm experiment in Meru South (sub-humid) and Mbeere South (marginal sub-humid) sub-counties in upper Eastern Kenya to assess conservation-effecti...
Abstract To attain agricultural sustainability, use of soil resources and tillage requires equal consideration for chemical and physical components of soil fertility. We assessed responses of selected soil physical and chemical properties to tillage and soil fertility amending resources. The study was carried out in Meru South and Kandara sub-counties located in the Central Highlands of Kenya for four cropping seasons. The experimental design was split-plot with tillage as the main factor - ...
Abstract Inherent low soil nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) is one of the major hindrances of increased soybean productivity in Malawian soils. Although, inoculation of legumes with rhizobia, has been advocated for decades as a way of boosting leguminous crops’ productivity through biological nitrogen fixation (BNF), the effectiveness of this strategy, has been low. An experiment was carried out to investigate the effect of the application of small doses of N and P to inoculated soybean. It...
Abstract The study investigated the socioeconomic and institutional factors influencing uptake of multiple climate change adaptation practices among smallholder farmers in lower Eastern Kenya. Multistage sampling procedure was used to select 384 small-scale farmers. Percentage and regression were used in the analysis. Among the socio-economic factors, gender positively and significantly influenced adoption of conservation agriculture and water harvesting at 5%, respectively. Among the instit...
Abstract Soil acidity and phosphorus deficiency are some of the constraints hampering agricultural production in tropical regions. The prevalence of soil acidity is associated with phosphorus (P) insufficiency and aluminum saturation. We conducted a two-seasons experiment to evaluate soil phosphorus availability and exchangeable aluminum in response to phosphate rock and organic inputs in acidic humic nitisols. The field experiment was installed in Tharaka Nithi County in the Central Highlan...
Abstract Human-related activities are known to have deleterious effects on the water quality of aquatic ecosystems, but there is limited information on the impact of these on rivers in tropical regions, such as the Chania River in Kenya. The Chania River is an important source of water for humans and animals and provides habitat for a variety of flora and fauna. This study used a Water Quality Index (WQI) to assess the suitability of the water for human use based on selected physico-chemical...
Abstract Recent research on participatory forest management (PFM) in the global south has highlighted the existence of a widespread “implementation gap” between the ambitious intent enshrined in legislation and the often partial, disappointing rollout of devolved forest governance on the ground. Here, through an ethnographic case study of forest officers (FOs) in Kenya, we draw on a framework of critical institutionalism to examine how key meso-level actors, or “interface bureaucrats,�...
Abstract Maize is a staple food and a source of carbohydrates to a large proportion of people in Kenya. The performance of crop plants such as maize depends on a number of factors such as climate, soil characteristics and plant species. The maturity parameters such time to tassel, milk stage, physiological maturity and biological maturity are consequently affected which in turn has an influence on crop performance. A study was carried out at University of Embu Demonstration Farm that lies at...