For farmers to explore and contribute to the growing needs of agricultural technologies, farmer-led innovations have been supported by mainstream research activities through donor funding. This research aims to identify different innovations introduced by farmer innovators and determine their impacts and challenges in its implementation. Through a systematic review, a multi-database approach was used to source relevant scientific publications key to the topic of review. Articles originating from developing countries, on farmer-led innovation and mostly peer-reviewed journal sources were used. The findings revealed several specific farmer-led innovations under broad category of livestock, crop husbandry, agro-processing and storage and post-harvest innovations. In some cases, productivity and incomes were improved due to the adoption of farmer-led innovations. Challenges in farmer-led innovations in developing countries include low education, a lack of donor interest, limited research capacity and lack of cost sharing. These challenges can negatively impact food security improvement in smallholder farm households.

Multiple stressors such as climate shocks, environmental degradation and resource conflicts may pose a great challenge for African communities struggling to adapt to climate change. Yet, there is limited empirical evidence on the differential vulnerabilities of farming and fishing households to these triple stressors. Using a household survey in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, we compare the vulnerability of farming and fishing households. We find that the farming households were more exposed to the triple stressors while the fishing households were more sensitive to the triple stressors owing to their poor physical and natural asset base. In addition, we find that the two groups share similar adaptive capacity and composite vulnerability scores. Overall, interventions such as credit schemes can enable fishing households to address their livelihood disruptions and build their asset endowment, and climate-responsive interventions such as early warning systems can partly reduce the climate exposure of farming households.

This study investigates the preferences of rainfed farmers in West Africa for bundled agroclimate services, addressing challenges posed by climate variability and limited purchasing power. With various startups offering digital communication channels, credit, and insurance services, farmers often struggle to afford individual services, necessitating coherent service packages. The research aims to identify the most preferred attributes of agroclimate services and predict how increasing climate variability affects farmers' choices. Using a Choice Experiment and Mixed Logit model, data was collected from 1,212 farmers across four West African countries (Ghana, Senegal, Mali and Burkina Faso). The findings reveal that the most preferred service bundle (Bundle 4), which includes daily weather forecasts, seed advisories, and drought insurance, garnered a preference of 45%. In contrast, Bundle 0, which lacks these features, was selected by only 22% of farmers. Notably, the introduction of a USD 1,000 credit option increased the likelihood of selecting preferred bundles by 39%. Additionally, 62% of farmers indicated that weather-based information is a critical factor in their decision-making. Access to agricultural credit significantly influenced choices, with a 17% increase in the likelihood of selecting preferred bundles when credit was available. The study underscores the importance of designing comprehensive service packages that cater to farmers' specific and urgent needs. It highlights the necessity for partnerships among service providers to improve the delivery of these essential services. By showing the agroclimate service bundling power, the study provides valuable insights for policymakers and stakeholders to support agricultural development and sustainability in West Africa.

Although cocoa production addresses the livelihoods of several rural households, there is a global concern about its negative impact on the physical environment. How does this trade-off play out in different farming systems? This paper examined the social and environmental trade-offs and synergies of organic and conventional cocoa farming systems. Using the ‘SMART Farm-tool’ and principal component analysis approach, data collected from 398 cocoa farmers in five communities in the Atwima Mponua District of Ghana were analysed. We found that social and environmental trade-offs in the organic cocoa farming system are labour-related (EV = −0.38). The social and environmental trade-offs in the conventional cocoa farming system are health and safety and biodiversity-related (EV = −0.64). The organic farming system recognises indigenous knowledge in promoting biodiversity conservation and land degradation reduction (EV = −0.57). There can be more synergy than trade-off in both systems if support for capacity building and credit is provided and indigenous knowledge sharing is prioritised among low-income and vulnerable farmers. In this way, the labour conditions, biodiversity conservation, and health and safety-related concerns will be addressed. Addressing labour concerns in organic cocoa farming involves improving efficiency and working conditions. Strategies include training programs for organic techniques, introducing technology for tasks, and adhering to fair labour standards. This ensures labour concerns are addressed across the supply chain.

The study aimed to examine the impact of farming systems on flora diversity in the Atwima Mponua District of Ghana's Ashanti region. It emphasized the importance of understanding the diversity and functional life forms of flora species to promote those with high biodiversity value but low competitive potential. The study randomly selected 32 cocoa farms, with 16 from each farming system. For each cocoa farm, a sample plot measuring 25 m by 25 m was set out, from which 5 m by 5 m subplots were drawn to evaluate the diversity of plant species. For each farm, a list of the species composition was created after the flora was identified. The distribution of species and the abundance of living forms were shown, and the Jaccard index of similarity was computed to compare the species between the two agricultural systems. The differences in flora variety between the two cocoa growing methods were calculated using the Shannon and Simpson diversity indices, and the Mann–Whitney U test was employed to determine their significance. The study revealed notable findings regarding the comparison between organic and conventional cocoa farms in terms of flora diversity. Firstly, it was observed that the abundance of life forms in organic farms exceeded that of conventional farms. In terms of species richness and evenness, the Shannon index indicates that organic farms exhibited a slightly greater diversity of species. Species dominance was statistically significant in organic farms, indicating a more balanced distribution of species. Based on these findings, the study concludes that organic farming holds the potential for enhancing flora diversity in cocoa farms. This highlights the importance of promoting and encouraging the adoption of organic farming practices to support and preserve biodiversity.

Optimizing sustainability among smallholder farms poses challenges due to inherent trade-offs. In the study of organic and conventional cocoa smallholder farming in Ghana, 398 farms are assessed using the Food and Agriculture Organsation of the United Nations (FAO) Sustainability Assessment of Food and Agriculture systems (SAFA) Guidelines and Sustainability Monitoring and Assessment Routine (SMART)-Farm Tool. Organic farming exhibited synergies in environmental aspects (e.g., soil quality, energy efficiency) and between biodiversity conservation and risk management. Conventional farming showed potential vulnerabilities, including trade-offs with long-range investments (e.g., chemical inputs) and species diversity. Both systems demand tailored approaches for short-term economic and environmental sustainability, aligning with community-wide long-term goals. To mitigate trade-offs in conventional farming, smallholders should adopt practices like material reuse, recycling, and recovery within their operations.

Street foods are one of the highest contributors to foodborne illness in most developing economies around the world. In Ghana, diarrhoeal diseases, which are usually food or waterborne, are among the top ten causes of death. Most street food safety risks are avoidable when all food safety regulations are complied with. This paper identified and examined the barriers to the implementation of street food safety regulations in Ghana. A qualitative research approach was adopted by collecting data from nine focus group discussion sessions involving a total of 94 participants and five key informant interviews. The research uncovered three broad but interconnected categories of challenges to ensuring and sustaining street food safety: street vendor anonymity as a central challenge; poor trust in the regulatory system as root challenges; and vendor practices that risk the safety of street foods as consequential challenges. These findings have tangible policy implications. To best serve their purpose, policymakers need to understand these food safety challenges and ensure that food safety policies are responsive to the challenges.

The study assessed the influence of warehouse receipt system (WRS) on market access using 400 smallholder maize farmers from six communities in the Northern Region of Ghana. Primary data were collected through the use of an open-ended questionnaire. The endogenous switching regression model and propensity score matching was employed for data analysis. The results showed that participation in the WRS was mostly influenced by loan accessibility, size of crop output, established buyers, and membership in farmer organizations. The implications of the results are discussed. The paper concludes that the sustainability of farmer participation in WRS lies in strengthening farmer organizations and access to high-end markets through forming trust relationships with buyers.

The core argument developed in this chapter is that an understanding of value chain governance can help identify entry points for research on children’s work and for interventions to address harmful work. These chains link processes of production, trade, processing and distribution, and determine how costs, benefits and risks are distributed. The authors develop a typology of governance modalities found in international and domestic agricultural value chains that shape the capabilities, opportunities and motivations of the stakeholders involved to address children’s harmful work. Through a deeper understanding of value chain governance, the chapter argues for a focus on the nature and distribution of power in transactions, and how these dynamics limit or enhance effective discussions and coordination.

As women's empowerment is critical for the adoption of agricultural technologies by farmers, some governments have over the last three decades adopted a gender equality approach to food security. In Ghana, women play a vital role as farmers and food processors, which means they impact household nutrition in important ways. In this article, we explore women's empowerment in maize-producing sites in Ghana by drawing on original data collected from over 400 farmers and service providers as part of a United States Agency for International Development-funded Feed the Future project. We employ a quasi-"women's empowerment in agriculture index" to measure the extent to which men and women maize producers are either empowered or disempowered in the domains of production, access to resources, control over income, leadership, and time allocation. Our study reveals that cost and time poverty are the main factors that influence the adoption of technologies to reduce postharvest losses. We also find that women are disproportionately disempowered in the areas of control over the use of income and time poverty. Importantly, we further find that researchers need to account for perceived versus actual empowerment when examining gender inequality in agriculture. Our study findings and policy recommendations will be of interest to policymakers, scholars, and development practitioners.

This chapter explores the case of children’s work in shallot and other vegetable production activities. On the Keta Peninsula in South-East Ghana intensive, commercial, irrigated shallot production is centuries-old, and continues to rely on household labour. Children have long been an integral part of this system, but strikingly there have been no accusations of child labour or harmful work. The chapter explores the reasons for this and highlights the cultural acceptability of children working to support the household and local community. It might be better for policy makers and researchers to start with a framing of ‘benefit’ associated with children’ work rather than the simplistic assumption of ‘harm’.

Abstract Over the past few decades, scientists have discovered Aquaponics as an innovative method for growing food that may hold the key to efficiently and sustainably feeding the world's population and serving as a job avenue for young graduates. Although many studies have shown aquaponic food production to be technically feasible, there are relatively few studies in Ghana concerning its economic feasibility. A pilot experiment was implemented, and observations and surveys were carried out to obtain views from stakeholders from 2017–2023 in the University of Ghana. The aquaponic system was composed of a plastic pond (for growing tilapia/catfish species), connecting pipes, aerators, polytanks and soiless media for growing lettuce. We studied the financial impact of the nexus between tilapia and lettuce aquaponics, and the institutional support system. Aquaponics is profitable, the production rate can be high - three cycles a year for the tilapia, and harvesting lettuce every five weeks. Yet, the initial financial costs is high, the engineering experts to install the system to run efficiently and the extension officers to provide technical information consistently at the local level are lacking. The implications of the findings are that the interest of young people who are the target, may be lost; finding the investment capital to take advantage of an otherwise profitable venture should go hand-in-hand with available experts in installation and technical information provision. There are national level governmental and private institutions that are ready to support enterprises in aquaponics to work; they should be motivated to engage and provide the local support efficiently.

Understanding how and the extent to which contract farming arrangements impact agricultural productivity is important to ensuring that policies are designed to maximize the likelihood of success. Using cross-sectional data from 516 soybean farmers in Northern Ghana, we provide empirical evidence that contract farming increases soybean productivity and technical efficiency in Northern Ghana. We use propensity score matching to reduce bias from observables, and then estimate a stochastic production frontier model that addresses selection bias arising from unobservable variables. We find that the technical efficiency levels of contract farmers are 77 percent compared with 69 percent for non-contract farmers. We also find that access to credit, extension contact, and farmer group membership are key determinants of participating in contract farming.

Sustainable food production is not negotiable if food security is to be achieved. Recent statistics show increasing food insecurity issues in Nigeria despite government policy and programmes in the agricultural sector. The study specifically described agriculture growth trend under three policy regimes and analysed the effects of agricultural sector policy on food security in Nigeria between 1960 and 2020. Secondary data on agricultural output, gross deficit financing, labour employed in the agricultural sector, land, and population were obtained from World Development Indicators (WDI) of the World Bank, Food and Agriculture Organization Statistics (FAOSTAT), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), and National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). The data were analysed using trend analysis and Dummy Variable Regression (DVR) model. The Instantaneous Growth Rate (IGR) and compound growth rate (CGR) were respectively 3 percent and 7.2 percent in 1960 – 1969, 0.5 percent and 1.2 percent in 1970 – 1985, and 3.4 percent and 8.1 percent in 1986 – 2020; the country experienced stagnated pattern of growth in the agriculture sector within the oil boom and policy reconstruction period with an instantaneous and compound growth rate of 0.5 percent and 1.2 percent, respectively. An IGR and CGR of 3.4 percent and 8.1 percent, respectively were recorded during the policy stabilization era with an accelerating growth pattern. The intercept of agricultural output and per capita food production of the period with complete agricultural policy document differs from the period with no policy document by 36.8 percent and 39.8 percent, respectively, revealing an increase in the value of agricultural output and per capita food production in the period with a national policy document. The study concludes that availability of agricultural sector policy document directly impacts food security. The post-estimation tests on the models confirmed that policy implications emanating from this study are adoptable to improve food security in Nigeria through the agricultural sector policy. Proper and efficient policy mix to support agricultural production was recommended. Key words: Agricultural policy, Agricultural output, Acceleration, Dummy Variable Regression (DVR), Food security, Sustainability, Nigeria

Organic agriculture (OA) is often regarded as a sustainable agricultural pathway for smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa, and an increasing number of initiatives promoting OA were initiated over the last decades. However, holistic empirical evidence on the effects of such initiatives on the sustainability of smallholder farmers is still scanty. We analyzed the effects of five initiatives promoting OA on farm-level sustainability. We selected farmers exposed to the initiatives (n = 678) and control farms (n = 957) in five different case studies, two implemented in Ghana and three in Kenya. We used a farm-level multi-criteria assessment tool that evaluates to what extent the environmental, social, economic, and governance sustainability goals formulated in the FAO-SAFA Guidelines are addressed by farmers. We found that the initiatives had limited effects on reducing farmers reliance on chemical inputs use (pesticides and synthetic fertilizers) and uptake of organic or agro-ecological practices. Nevertheless, the results show that the initiatives were able to trigger significant (p-value < 0.05) positive effects mainly for the environmental sustainability goals. In contrast, the goals within the economic, social and good governance sustainability dimensions were rarely affected. Moreover, certified initiatives had more frequently a positive sustainability effect compared to uncertified initiatives.

Biochar is a pyrolysed biomass, incorporated into soil for improvement of soil health. Biochar added to soils holds the potential of a triple-win for livelihoods, environment and the climate. In environments where a lot of biomass is generated and poses disposable challenges, biochar remains a viable alternative for solving both agronomic and environmental problems, especially in highly degraded soils. Considerable research into biochar over the years have indicated its potential to solve many environmental problems, however there is still lack of knowledge about specific aspects of biochar production and use. Also, a number of assertions related to the positive impact of biochar in agriculture have not been well explained scientifically and verified. In Ghana, research on biochar is recent and currently uncoordinated with research outputs not clearly documented and visible. There is the urgent need to review available information on biochar research outputs in Ghana and provide expert opinion on the feasibility of embedding the technology in specific farming systems. The aim of this paper is to present an in-depth review of biochar research in Ghana, as it relates to agriculture and environmental management. Challenges to the biochar technology, formulation, feedstock availability and adoption rates are discussed. There is wide array of potential feedstocks for biochar production from agricultural residues. The -l quantity of biochar application has pronounced effect on maize grain yield where 5 t ha -l significantly yielded more maize grain than 2.5 t ha . Soils amended with cocoa pod biochar increased maize grain yield by 56 % compared to un-amended soil. Biochar can contribute to improving crop productivity on smallholdings although its supply and value chains are not formalized and the product is unfamiliar in most farming communities. Policies that integrate biochar to sustainable intensification in agriculture is recommended.

Pineapple is one of the important non-traditional agricultural export commodities that contributes immensely to the progress of Ghana. This study assesses the effectiveness of the local institutions in the production of pineapple for export. The study achieves this by investigating how well the Local Institutions perform their functions; both statutory and non-statutory functions based on how the institutions perceive each other’s functional performance. Primary data on the functions were obtained from thirty (30) identified local institutions categorised into five (5) namely Local Administration, Local Government, Service Organisation, Membership Organisations and Private Businesses. The data obtained were analysed using the Chi-square method of analyses. Constraints in achieving high institutional performance of the Local Institutions were ranked and the Kendall concordance coefficient was used to test the extent of agreement between the constraints. The results of the study showed that about 63 percent of the selected Local Institutions were found to be effective in the performance of their functions. The linkage among the Local Institutions was fairly strong; only 33 percent of the institutions were found to relate strongly with others. Out of the strongly linked institutions, 50 percent were found to be among the institutions that were found to be effective in the performance of their functions. Inadequate finance and poor logistics were identified as the most pressing constraints that limited the achievement of high performance of the Local Institutions. In order to be effective in performance of functions, Local Institutions need to develop innovative ways of networking with others in the pineapple subsector, especially farmers. In this way, good agricultural practices would be assured and increased production for export will be sustained.

There is overwhelming evidence to suggest that climate shocks undermine food security and livelihood well-being of the climate-impacted Niger Delta region of Nigeria. Employing survey data collected from farming and fishing households in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, the study investigated the range of adaptation practices prevalent in the region, as well as factors influencing the adoption of these adaptation strategies. Five hundred and three (503) households (252 fishing households and 251 farming households) were selected using multi-stage sampling techniques. Multinomial logit model was used to determine factors affecting the household choice of adaptation strategies. The results show that adaptation strategies adopted by farming households were livelihood diversification (78.5%), crop management (77.7%), and soil and water management (64.5%). Factors influencing their choice of adaptation strategies were age, gender, household size, education, extension, and farm size. The adaptation strategies employed by the fishing households were livelihood diversification (83.61%) and intensification [which include the use of improved fishing gears (80.33%), varying fishing locations (67.21%), and expanding area of fishing (40.98%)]. Uncovering the heterogeneity in adaptation and resilience aspects to climate shocks has immense practical significance, particularly in providing targeted assistance for the two livelihood groups’ adoption.