THE DETERMINANTS AND EFFECTS OF MAIZE CROP AND LIVESTOCK INTEGRATION AMONG FULANI HERDSMEN IN MAMPRUGU-MOAGDURI DISTRICT, NORTHEN GHANA

Abstract

Crop-livestock integration is a risk coping strategy in the mixed farming system, which enhances conservation and sustainable agriculture.This study investigates the determinants and effects of maize crop and livestock integration among Fulani herdsmen in the Mamprugu-Moagduri District in the Northern Region of Ghana. Purposive sampling was used to select the study area while simple random sampling and stratified sampling were used to select the communities and respondents respectively. A total of 200 respondents was used for the analysis.The study used Heckman treatment effect model for the analysis. The study concludes that most agricultural practices adopted by the respondents were the use of weedicides (97.50%); land preparation by tractor (95%); dibbling (87.5%) and chemical fertilizer (87.5%). About 53% of the respondents adopted CLI. The probability of adopting CLI in the study area is high for the following categories of farmers: younger farmers; relatively large farm holders; farmers who have access to credit; farmers with small herd size; and farmers who adopted less inorganic fertilizers. Similarly, adoption of maize crop and livestock integration led to increased household maize output. Training is a major constraint to CLI adoption in the study area. The study recommends that Government policies and programmes should be geared towards facilitating improved access to production credit with minimum collateral and low interest rate to improve the adoption of crop-livestock integration. The youth and the relatively large maize farm holders should be targeted for support. Farm households should be encouraged to minimize inorganic fertilizer application and shift their attention towards crop-livestock integration. Public training should be enhanced to build farmers’ capacity to adopt maize crop and -livestock integration.