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Agricultural land use efficiency and food crop production in Ghana

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Abstract

Despite the low productivity of the extensive agriculture system, Ghana recorded the largest reduction of undernourishment in the past two decades. We used biophysical analysis to determine the efficiency and potentials of the extensive system and its future sustainability. The results indicate that food production in Ghana has increased steadily over the past two decades and correlated highly with cropped area and population (R 2 < 0.85 and 0.82), but not with fertilizer (R 2 = 0.06). Sufficient food production could be sustained in the short term. In the longer term, however, the food situation in Ghana appears precarious if population growth continues while land remains the same.

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Notes

  1. Under-nourishment is defined as that food intake level that is insufficient to meet dietary energy requirements continuously.

  2. A predictive or simulation model attempts to represent quantitatively relatively well-known system allowing simulation of the future or hypothetical states (Hall and Day 1977).

  3. The quantity of fertilizer that generates half the maximum amount of crop production that is determined as the asymptote where any further addition of fertilizer input will have little effect on productivity.

  4. This is the maximum amount of increased yield that can be added to the no-fertilizer base year yields. It is the difference between maximum yield with fertilizer and the yield without fertilizer, in tons per ha.

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Acknowledgments

We are very thankful to the Ford Foundation International Fellowships Program, under the Institute of International Education (IIE), and the State University of New York, College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY-ESF), Syracuse for supporting Amos’ Master’s degree program which led to the production of this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Forest and Natural Resources Management, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, 1 Forestry Dr, Syracuse, NY, 13210, USA

    Amos K. Quaye & Valerie A. Luzadis

  2. Department of Environmental and Forest Biology, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, 1 Forestry Dr, Syracuse, NY, 13210, USA

    Charles A. S. Hall

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  1. Amos K. Quaye
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  2. Charles A. S. Hall
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Correspondence to Amos K. Quaye.

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Quaye, A.K., Hall, C.A.S. & Luzadis, V.A. Agricultural land use efficiency and food crop production in Ghana. Environ Dev Sustain 12, 967–983 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-010-9234-z

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