Bandanaa, Joseph; Asante, Isaac K.; Egyir, Irene S.; Schader, Christian; Annang, Ted Y.; Blockeel, Johan; Kadzere, Irene and Heidenreich, Anja (2021) Sustainability performance of organic and conventional cocoa farming systems in Atwima Mponua District of Ghana. Environmental and Sustainability Indicators, 11 (100121), pp. 1-10.
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Document available online at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2665972721000222#!
Summary
The potential of organic agriculture to contribute to sustainable development in Ghana is unclear. This article assesses the sustainability performance of organic and conventional cocoa farming systems in Ghana. Data was collected from 398 organic and conventional cocoa farmers using the SMART-Farm tool. Compared to conventional cocoa farming systems, we found a higher environmental sustainability performance in organic cocoa farming systems regarding water withdrawal (+29%), species diversity (+26%), land degradation (+24%), genetic diversity (+24%) and greenhouse gases (+22%). The organic farming systems performed better compared to conventional in profitability (+20%) due to market premiums, gender equity (+27%), and verbally committed to sustainability topics (+25%). Agronomic practices had a strong influence on the observed sustainability performance, especially the environmental performance. Typical organic cocoa farming system has small farm sizes, spends more hours weeding manually since chemical weedicides are prohibited and has more diverse crops. Measures to improve performance is paramount for farming systems sustainability.
| EPrint Type: | Journal paper |
|---|---|
| Keywords: | sustainability, farming systems, cocoa, Ghana, Abacus, FiBL35126, FiBL65107 |
| Agrovoc keywords: | Language Value URI English sustainability http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_33560 English farming systems http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_2807 English cocoa tree -> Theobroma cacao http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_7713 |
| Subjects: | Crop husbandry > Production systems "Organics" in general > Countries and regions > Africa |
| Research affiliation: | Switzerland > FiBL - Research Institute of Organic Agriculture Switzerland > Crops > Special crops > Cocoa Switzerland > FiBL - Research Institute of Organic Agriculture Switzerland > International > Agriculture in the Tropics and Subtropics > Systems comparison |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.indic.2021.100121 |
| Deposited By: | Forschungsinstitut für biologischen Landbau, FiBL |
| ID Code: | 43250 |
| Deposited On: | 10 Jan 2022 18:22 |
| Last Modified: | 11 Jan 2023 14:24 |
| Document Language: | English |
| Status: | Published |
| Refereed: | Peer-reviewed and accepted |
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