Evaluating the Resilience of the Cocoa Agroecosystem in the Offinso Municipal and Adansi North Districts of Ghana
Source abstract
Abstract
The application of the resilience concept within socioecological systems has recently received much attention. Assessing the characteristics of cocoa agroecosystems in the dry and moist semi-deciduous ecological zones has become critical for resilience analysis in this era of climate change and the constant shrinking of cocoa suitability areas. Previous studies have used one of the dimensions of resilience to analyse complex adaptive systems, excluding critical factors and variables. This study applied a multi-criteria decision-making process, the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) that accommodates the three dimensions of resilience, i.e., buffer capacity, adaptive capacity and self-organisation. The AHP is a multi-criteria decision-making tool that proceeds with the design of a hierarchy system for the goal, criteria, attributes and variables. Selected cocoa farmers were assigned weights related to criteria, attributes and variables in a comparison matrix. The resilience of the cocoa agroecosystems in Offinso Municipal and Adansi North Districts was 2.75 ± 0.06 (mean ± SD) and 3.23 ± 0.10 (mean ± SD), respectively. Buffer capacity contributed the highest proportion (44.3%) in the Offinso Municipal District, followed by adaptive capacity (38.7%) and self-organisation (17%). A similar trend was recorded for the Adansi North District: buffer capacity (42.9%), adaptive capacity (42.9%) and self-organisation (14.3%). Across the two study areas, shade trees, crop diversification, soil quality, cocoa variety, farm size, farm age, alternative livelihood, annual income and co-operative membership contributed prominently to the construction of cocoa agroecosystem resilience. The assessment of agroecosystem resilience is location-specific, and the study provides a simplified methodology for evaluating resilience. The paper aims to understand the importance of the components of the cocoa agroecosystem, and a simplified methodology for evaluating its resilience to perturbations. It presents a conceptual and methodological framework for the analysis and measurement of agroecosystem resilience in a participatory manner.
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Research context
OpenAlex topics: Cocoa and Sweet Potato Agronomy · Oil Palm Production and Sustainability · Agricultural Innovations and Practices
SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.
Affiliations
Forestry Commission of Ghana, Kumasi 00233, Ghana
Department of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen, DK-1958 Frederiksberg, Denmark
Department of Agroecology, Agricultural Systems and Sustainability, Aarhus University, Blichers Allé 20, DK-8830 Tjele, Denmark
Department of Agroforestry, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi 00233, Ghana
Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana, Akim-Tafo 00233, Ghana
Funding
Danish International Development Agency
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