IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/wdevel/v158y2022ics0305750x22002042.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Farmers’ perspectives and context are key for the success and sustainability of farmer-managed natural regeneration (FMNR) in northeastern Ghana

Author

Listed:
  • Kandel, Matt
  • Anghileri, Daniela
  • Alare, Rahinatu S.
  • Lovett, Peter N.
  • Agaba, Genevieve
  • Addoah, Thomas
  • Schreckenberg, Kate

Abstract

Restoring degraded landscapes is critical for achieving global environmental and development goals, and agroforestry is increasingly promoted as a nature-based solution to land degradation. Farmer-managed natural regeneration (FMNR) is an agroforestry-based approach for restoring degraded agricultural land and it has been widely implemented in African drylands. However, a recent systematic review found significant gaps in the evidence base for FMNR, including that its upscaling has been based on inadequate understandings of local contexts. Furthermore, studies reporting on farmer adoption of FMNR have mainly relied on quantitative data from household surveys, resulting in limited understandings of what motivates farmers who practice FMNR. This paper draws on the results of a qualitative study in northeastern Ghana to address two questions: 1) How and why do farmers practice FMNR? And 2) How does context influence farmers’ rationales for practicing FMNR? We found that farmers grounded their perspectives on the utility of FMNR in nuanced understandings of the local farming and land and tree tenure systems. The results of our study also demonstrate how farmers’ decision-making was situated within socially and agroecologically differentiated contexts, which were conditioned by long-term, multi-faceted change in the region. We conclude that in spite of the rush to scale up FMNR, more attention should be directed to assessing where, when, and for whom FMNR might be appropriate. Such assessments should be grounded in resource managers’ preferences, local agricultural and land and tree tenure systems, and the requisite biophysical conditions for FMNR. To support these efforts, we propose an FMNR suitability assessment framework, based on our findings and those from related studies. As landscape restoration is scaled up globally, initiatives should be informed by evidence demonstrating how and why resource managers might practice a restoration activity as well as how context influences their choices.

Suggested Citation

  • Kandel, Matt & Anghileri, Daniela & Alare, Rahinatu S. & Lovett, Peter N. & Agaba, Genevieve & Addoah, Thomas & Schreckenberg, Kate, 2022. "Farmers’ perspectives and context are key for the success and sustainability of farmer-managed natural regeneration (FMNR) in northeastern Ghana," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:158:y:2022:i:c:s0305750x22002042
    DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2022.106014
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X22002042
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.worlddev.2022.106014?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Steve Tonah, 2002. "Fulani pastoralists, indigenous farmers and the contest for land in Northern Ghana," Africa Spectrum, Institute of African Affairs, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies, Hamburg, vol. 37(1), pages 43-59.
    2. Leach, Melissa & Mearns, Robin & Scoones, Ian, 1999. "Environmental Entitlements: Dynamics and Institutions in Community-Based Natural Resource Management," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 225-247, February.
    3. Joachim N. Binam & Frank Place & Arinloye A. Djalal & Antoine Kalinganire, 2017. "Effects of local institutions on the adoption of agroforestry innovations: evidence of farmer managed natural regeneration and its implications for rural livelihoods in the Sahel," Agricultural and Food Economics, Springer;Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA), vol. 5(1), pages 1-28, December.
    4. Mathieu Ouédraogo & Prosper Houessionon & Robert B. Zougmoré & Samuel Tetteh Partey, 2019. "Uptake of Climate-Smart Agricultural Technologies and Practices: Actual and Potential Adoption Rates in the Climate-Smart Village Site of Mali," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(17), pages 1-19, August.
    5. Akaateba, Millicent Awialie, 2019. "The politics of customary land rights transformation in peri-urban Ghana: Powers of exclusion in the era of land commodification," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    6. Ghazala Mansuri & Vijayendra Rao, 2013. "Localizing Development : Does Participation Work?," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 11859, December.
    7. Sinclair, F. L. & Walker, D. H., 1998. "Acquiring qualitative knowledge about complex agroecosystems. Part 1: Representation as natural language," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 56(3), pages 341-363, March.
    8. Kiptot, Evelyne & Hebinck, Paul & Franzel, Steven & Richards, Paul, 2007. "Adopters, testers or pseudo-adopters? Dynamics of the use of improved tree fallows by farmers in western Kenya," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 94(2), pages 509-519, May.
    9. Walker, D. H. & Sinclair, F. L., 1998. "Acquiring qualitative knowledge about complex agroecosystems. Part 2: Formal representation," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 56(3), pages 365-386, March.
    10. Kansanga, Moses & Andersen, Peter & Atuoye, Kilian & Mason-Renton, Sarah, 2018. "Contested commons: Agricultural modernization, tenure ambiguities and intra-familial land grabbing in Ghana," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 215-224.
    11. Reed, James & Ickowitz, Amy & Chervier, Colas & Djoudi, Houria & Moombe, Kaala & Ros-Tonen, Mirjam & Yanou, Malaika & Yuliani, Linda & Sunderland, Terry, 2020. "Integrated landscape approaches in the tropics: A brief stock-take," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    12. McLain, Rebecca & Lawry, Steven & Guariguata, Manuel R. & Reed, James, 2021. "Toward a tenure-responsive approach to forest landscape restoration: A proposed tenure diagnostic for assessing restoration opportunities," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    13. Meine van Noordwijk & Vincent Gitz & Peter A. Minang & Sonya Dewi & Beria Leimona & Lalisa Duguma & Nathanaël Pingault & Alexandre Meybeck, 2020. "People-Centric Nature-Based Land Restoration through Agroforestry: A Typology," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(8), pages 1-29, July.
    14. Colin Thor West & Sarah Benecky & Cassandra Karlsson & Bella Reiss & Aaron J. Moody, 2020. "Bottom-Up Perspectives on the Re-Greening of the Sahel: An Evaluation of the Spatial Relationship between Soil and Water Conservation (SWC) and Tree-Cover in Burkina Faso," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(6), pages 1-22, June.
    15. Judith Carney, 1991. "Indigenous soil and water management in Senegambian rice farming systems," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 8(1), pages 37-48, December.
    16. Meinzen-Dick, Ruth Suseela & Pradhan, Rajendra, 2002. "Legal pluralism and dynamic property rights," CAPRi working papers 22, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    17. Eriksen, Siri & Schipper, E. Lisa F. & Scoville-Simonds, Morgan & Vincent, Katharine & Adam, Hans Nicolai & Brooks, Nick & Harding, Brian & Khatri, Dil & Lenaerts, Lutgart & Liverman, Diana & Mills-No, 2021. "Adaptation interventions and their effect on vulnerability in developing countries: Help, hindrance or irrelevance?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    18. Festus Boamah, 2014. "How and why chiefs formalise land use in recent times: the politics of land dispossession through biofuels investments in Ghana," Review of African Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(141), pages 406-423, September.
    19. Nicole Klenk & Anna Fiume & Katie Meehan & Cerian Gibbes, 2017. "Local knowledge in climate adaptation research: moving knowledge frameworks from extraction to co‐production," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 8(5), September.
    20. Joachim Binam & Frank Place & Antoine Kalinganire & Sigue Hamade & Moussa Boureima & Abasse Tougiani & Joseph Dakouo & Bayo Mounkoro & Sanogo Diaminatou & Marcel Badji & Mouhamadou Diop & Andre Babou , 2015. "Effects of farmer managed natural regeneration on livelihoods in semi-arid West Africa," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 17(4), pages 543-575, October.
    21. Sebastiaan Soeters & Ruben Weesie & Annelies Zoomers, 2017. "Agricultural Investments and Farmer-Fulani Pastoralist Conflict in West African Drylands: A Northern Ghanaian Case Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(11), pages 1-19, November.
    22. Paudyal, Kiran & Baral, Himlal & Burkhard, Benjamin & Bhandari, Santosh P. & Keenan, Rodney J., 2015. "Participatory assessment and mapping of ecosystem services in a data-poor region: Case study of community-managed forests in central Nepal," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 13(C), pages 81-92.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Natarajan, Nithya & Newsham, Andrew & Rigg, Jonathan & Suhardiman, Diana, 2022. "A sustainable livelihoods framework for the 21st century," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    2. Agúndez, Dolores & Lawali, Sitou & Mahamane, Ali & Alía, Ricardo & Soliño, Mario, 2022. "Development of agroforestry food resources in Niger: Are farmers’ preferences context specific?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    3. Festus A. Asaaga, 2021. "Building on “Traditional” Land Dispute Resolution Mechanisms in Rural Ghana: Adaptive or Anachronistic?," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-17, February.
    4. Cerdán, C.R. & Rebolledo, M.C. & Soto, G. & Rapidel, B. & Sinclair, F.L., 2012. "Local knowledge of impacts of tree cover on ecosystem services in smallholder coffee production systems," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 119-130.
    5. Kaufmann, Brigitte A., 2011. "Second-order cybernetics as a tool to understand why pastoralists do what they do," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 104(9), pages 655-665.
    6. Kansanga, Moses Mosonsieyiri & Ahmed, Abubakari & Kuusaana, Elias Danyi & Oteng-Ababio, Martin & Luginaah, Isaac, 2020. "Of waste facility siting and relational geographies of place: Peri-urban landfills, community resistance and the politics of land control in Ghana," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    7. Kansanga, Moses Mosonsieyiri & Arku, Godwin & Luginaah, Isaac, 2019. "Powers of exclusion and counter-exclusion: The political ecology of ethno-territorial customary land boundary conflicts in Ghana," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 12-22.
    8. Biddulph, Robin & Hillbom, Ellen, 2020. "Registration of private interests in land in a community lands policy setting: An exploratory study in Meru district, Tanzania," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    9. Ehwi, Richmond Juvenile & Mawuli, Divine Asafo, 2021. "‘Landguardism’ in Ghana: Examining public perceptions about the driving factors," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    10. Laura Kmoch & Tim Pagella & Matilda Palm & Fergus Sinclair, 2018. "Using Local Agroecological Knowledge in Climate Change Adaptation: A Study of Tree-Based Options in Northern Morocco," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-17, October.
    11. McGregor, M. J. & Rola-Rubzen, M. F. & Murray-Prior, R., 2001. "Micro and macro-level approaches to modelling decision making," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 69(1-2), pages 63-83.
    12. Kansanga, Moses Mosonsieyiri & Luginaah, Isaac, 2019. "Agrarian livelihoods under siege: Carbon forestry, tenure constraints and the rise of capitalist forest enclosures in Ghana," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 131-142.
    13. Penda Sissoko & Sékou Sala Guindo & Sadio Togola & Bakary Désiré Dembélé & Lars Kåre Grimsby & Jens B. Aune, 2023. "Effect of Adoption of Climate-Smart-Agriculture Technologies on Cereal Production, Food Security and Food Diversity in Central Mali," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-15, June.
    14. Sulser, T. B. & Duryea, M. L. & Frolich, L. M. & Guevara-Cuaspud, E., 2001. "A field practical approach for assessing biophysical sustainability of alternative agricultural systems," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 68(2), pages 113-135, May.
    15. Walker, D. H. & Thorne, P. J. & Sinclair, F. L. & Thapa, B. & Wood, C. D. & Subba, D. B., 1999. "A systems approach to comparing indigenous and scientific knowledge: consistency and discriminatory power of indigenous and laboratory assessment of the nutritive value of tree fodder," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 62(2), pages 87-103, November.
    16. Ruben Weesie, 2019. "Towards Adaptive Commons: A Case Study of Agro-Pastoral Dams in Northern Ghana," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-29, January.
    17. Abinash Bhattachan & Matthew D. Jurjonas & Priscilla R. Morris & Paul J. Taillie & Lindsey S. Smart & Ryan E. Emanuel & Erin L. Seekamp, 2019. "Linking residential saltwater intrusion risk perceptions to physical exposure of climate change impacts in rural coastal communities of North Carolina," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 97(3), pages 1277-1295, July.
    18. Laxmi D. Bhatta & Sunita Chaudhary & Anju Pandit & Himlal Baral & Partha J. Das & Nigel E. Stork, 2016. "Ecosystem Service Changes and Livelihood Impacts in the Maguri-Motapung Wetlands of Assam, India," Land, MDPI, vol. 5(2), pages 1-14, June.
    19. Patrick Bottazzi & David Crespo & Harry Soria & Hy Dao & Marcelo Serrudo & Jean Paul Benavides & Stefan Schwarzer & Stephan Rist, 2014. "Carbon Sequestration in Community Forests: Trade-offs, Multiple Outcomes and Institutional Diversity in the Bolivian Amazon," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 45(1), pages 105-131, January.
    20. Katherine Casey & Rachel Glennerster & Edward Miguel & Maarten Voors, 2023. "Skill Versus Voice in Local Development," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 105(2), pages 311-326, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:158:y:2022:i:c:s0305750x22002042. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/worlddev .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.