Drivers of farmers’ decisions to adopt agroforestry: Evidence from the Sudanian savanna zone, Burkina Faso

Abstract

In most developing countries, there has been a long-standing conflict of interest between using land for agriculture and the conservation of biodiversity. This paper reports on a study of factors influencing farmers’ decisions to integrate trees into their agricultural practice. We also discuss the possibility of protecting and managing planted and naturally regenerating trees on farmland in order to restore degraded land and improve biodiversity. Data were collected from interviews with farmers in the Center-West region of Burkina Faso and analyzed using Principal Component Analysis, multiple linear regression and binary logistic regression. The results show that farmers’ decisions to incorporate trees into their farmland were mainly influenced by silvicultural knowledge and skills, participation in farmers’ groups or other social organizations with an interest in tree conservation, the social value of biodiversity in the rural landscape, and the perceived economic benefits of trees on farmland. The most important factors associated with variation in levels of motivation to conserve trees on farms included household wealth, gender, age, education level, marital status, residence status, farmland size, household size and technical support. We conclude that an agroforestry project will be more successful if the local biophysical conditions and diversity of smallholder socio-economic characteristics and their perceptions, needs and preferences are considered in its design. There is also an immediate need for coordinated development of information and training to raise local community awareness of the potential of agroforestry as well as to disseminate information about adding value to tree products in order to encourage farmers to protect on-farm trees.

Perceived Climate Resilience and Adoption of Cocoa Agroforestry in the Forest-Savannah Transition Zone of Ghana

“…Consistent with Meijer et al [12], the logistic regression results strongly suggest that the widespread adoption of cocoa agroforestry in the FSTZ was jointly influenced by perceptions and socioeconomic factors. The significant influence of education level of the household head, off-farm income, sex of the household head, and sex distribution of the household found is in line with the empirical literature [13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22]. The significant positive influence of social network on adoption is also in accordance with the concept of homophily as underscored by the diffusion theory [36].…”

“…In improving understanding of farmers' agroforestry adoption behaviour, several studies have extensively examined the influence of socioeconomic factors on adoption [12]. For example, there is ample evidence that agroforestry adoption is positively influenced by the age [13,14], education level [15,14], gender (being a male) [13,8], farming experience [16], marital status [14], and ethnicity [17] of the household head. The likelihood of agroforestry adoption is also reported to increase with land ownership [18,16], agricultural labour size [19], proportion of males in a household [20], farm and off-farm income [18], food security [21], access to extension [18,8], access to climate information from official sources [22], and membership of farmers' associations [22].…”

Rebuilding Tree Cover in Deforested Cocoa Landscapes in Côte d’Ivoire: Factors Affecting the Choice of Species Planted

“…The results of the present study indicate that farmers' tree planting activities on cocoa farms depend on the expected benefits (i.e., motivation) and ability (i.e., experience in tree planting and farmers' age). In the Sudanian Savanna Zone of Burkina Faso, such tree planting decisions in parkland farming systems were also found to be influenced by silvicultural knowledge and perceived economic benefits [31]. Elsewhere, such as in the Philippines, reforestation incentives and the dependence of local people on forests were listed among the drivers of reforestation projects [53].…”

“…The factors that are reputed to influence the adoption of agroforestry systems include the socioeconomic characteristics of the farmer (i.e., potential adopter: age, gender, education level, cultural and eating habits, on-farm income, food security, perceptions and attitudes towards trees, marketing of products, local knowledge, and well-being), the external environment of the adopter (land tenure and tree rights, market access), and factors related to new technology (labor requirements, investment cost, long-term nature of the investment, and expected benefits [24][25][26][27][28][29]). However, the relative contribution of these factors to the decision to adopt may vary with practice and context [25,[27][28][29][30][31][32]. For example, social network effects, ethnic group, and geographic zone were found to determine the presence of trees and their density on cocoa farms in the Soubré region in Côte d'Ivoire [20], as did the severity of cocoa diseases and the existence of programs for extension and certification of cocoa, However, in the humid forest zones of Cameroon and Nigeria, strategies for growing fruit trees were identified as suitable for market access, land-use, and access to forest resources [33].…”

Effects of Land-Use Practices on Woody Plant Cover Dynamics in Sahelian Agrosystems in Burkina Faso since the 1970s–1980s Droughts

“…The improvement of woody plant cover can also be explained by the growing awareness of the socioeconomic and ecological roles of ligneous plants in adaptation to climate change (diversification of income sources, food, energy, crafts, soil fertility, spirituality, climate regulation, etc.) [17,40]. In addition, the scarcity of forest reserves with forest products (woody and not) [41] has led people to plant and/or maintain woody trees on their farms.…”