Urban and peri-urban forestry has emerged as a complementary measure to contribute towards eliminating urban hunger and improved nutritional security. However, there is scanty knowledge about the composition, diversity, and socioeconomic contributions of urban food trees in African cities. This paper examines the diversity and composition of the urban forest and food trees of Accra and sheds light on perceptions of urbanites regarding food tree cultivation and availability in the city. Using a mixed methods approach, 105 respondents in six neighborhoods of Accra were interviewed while over 200 plots (100-m2 each) were surveyed across five land use types. Twenty-two out of the 70 woody species in Accra have edible parts (leaves, fruits, flowers, etc.). The food-tree abundance in the city is about half of the total number of trees enumerated. The species richness and abundance of the food trees and all trees in the city were significantly different among land use types (p < 0.0001) and neighborhood types (p < 0.0001). The diversity of food-bearing tree species was much higher in the poorer neighborhoods than in the wealthier neighborhoods. Respondents in wealthier neighborhoods indicated that tree and food-tree cover of the city was generally low and showed greater interest in cultivating food (fruit) trees and expanding urban forest cover than poorer neighborhoods. These findings demonstrate the need for urban food policy reforms that integrate urban-grown tree foods in the urban food system/culture.

Background Weather-related risks thwart agricultural productivity gains especially in the face of climate change. Agricultural insurance serves as a reliable risk mitigation instrument for coping with climate-related hazards. This notwithstanding, agricultural insurance penetration among smallholder farmers in the global south remains low. This study investigated the access and acceptability of agricultural insurance among smallholder food crop farmers in Ghana. Method The study employed a mixed-methods approach involving both quantitative and qualitative approaches. The study was carried out in the Northern, Volta and Western regions involving 7 communities in 5 districts. A total of 200 farmers were sampled through a multi-stage purposive sampling and interviewed. A cross-sectional survey involved 100 respondents under the quantitative approach whilst the qualitative study engaged additional 100 farmers. Results The results show that smallholder farmers’ access and acceptability of agricultural insurance is low (14%) and scarce but ironically considered useful by many (90%) as an effective tool to deal with agricultural risks. Inadequate knowledge about agricultural insurance products constituted the most stated reason (64%) for the scarce adoption rate, followed (23%) by the unavailability of insurance products in areas needed but absent. A few (5%) reported insurance to be expensive. Acceptability and accessibility of agricultural insurance are further influenced by gender, educational level, low knowledge, information asymmetry and wrong perception concerning agricultural insurance products. Sense of security and reduced impact of climate variabilities constituted important benefits guaranteed by agricultural insurance. Conclusions Agricultural insurance access and acceptability is constrained by limited knowledge of agricultural insurance products. It is recommended that more insurance companies be incentivized to augment already existing efforts by Ghana Agricultural Insurance Pool (GAIP) to enroll more smallholder farmers. The government can consider bundling existing insurance products with credit or inputs under the Planting for Food and Jobs Programme (PFJ) to improve uptake and accessibility of agricultural insurance.

Inadequate access to agricultural extension services often results in poor farm practices, affecting yields and subsequently the income and wellbeing of smallholder farmers. Given the high demand for agricultural information and the limited capacity of extension services, a farmer-to-farmer extension approach has been explored by many underserved farmers. In this study, we use a qualitative case study approach explore how cassava farmers who had limited access to agricultural advisory services from public extension agents managed to up-scale their farming business. Our research question was: what lessons can be learned from the lived experience of these farmers to address current challenges of cassava farming? The results of our study revealed diversity in advisory messages from farmer to farmer and agricultural extension agents. Farmers’ messages focused on encouraging farmers’ commitment and motivation towards farming business, availability of needed financial resources for the entire production season, willingness to reinvest profits, and access to farmland for future expansion. In contrast, the traditional messages from agricultural extension agents focused on encouraging group formation to address marketing challenges, diversification of farm operations, and good agricultural practices. These results show the need for pluralistic extension approaches to ensure farmers get access to necessary information.

Background Ghana’s smallholder share area under cultivation is witnessing a gradual decline, relative to the share of farmland under medium scale that is growing rapidly. Little attention has, however, been given to examining the drivers that influence scale of operation. Method Using survey data from 231 farmers, this study employed the binary probit regression to assess factors that influence scale of farm operation among cassava and maize farmers in Ghana’s Eastern Region. Results The findings showed that factors that were significant and positively related to farm size were age, secondary education, land acquisition for maize farmers, and tertiary education for cassava farmers. On the other hand, factors that were significant and negatively related to farm size were gender, marital status, access to extension services for cassava farmers, and household size, membership of farmer-based organization and access to credit for maize farmers. Conclusion The study recommends the provision of mechanization support for medium-scale farmers coupled with the improvement of extension service delivery to medium-scale farmers. With messages focused on the adoption of improved technologies and mechanization of farm operations.

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