Conservation of dura oil palm in agroforestry systems in the Sunyani West District of the Brong Ahafo Region of Ghana

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2015-02-13
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Abstract
This study was carried out in the Sunyani West District of the Brong Ahafo Region. The aim was to determine the factors that could contribute to the conservation of dura oil palm. Eight communities were selected for this study. Both primary and secondary data were collected. Primary data was collected through the administration of semi-structured questionnaire to 80 farmers randomly selected from population of 410 farmers. Secondary data was obtained from existing literature and journals as well as Ministry of Food and Agriculture. The information obtained from the socio-economic survey was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Cross tabulation and Chi-square test were used to compare and test some important variables such as age, gender, education and household size on dura conservation. The study revealed that two types of agroforestry systems can contribute to dura oil palm conservation. These were agrisilvicultural and apiculture. Arisilvicultural system emerged as the highest (62.5%) and apiculture as the least (27.5%). Four agroforestry technologies were considered under agrisilvicultural system to contribute to dura conservation. These were cocoa agroforest (50%) plantation crop combination (31%), improved tree fallow (12.5%) and trees on croplands (6.5%) and some of the management practices that farmers carry out to ensure dura oil palm conservation include; dura left during land preparation (100%), weeding (95%), bushfire control (81), pruning (51%) and dura left in tenera plantations (50%). The major constraints hindering farmers in an attempt to conserve dura oil palm were; demand of the dura trees for wine tapping (98%), land scarcity/fragmentation (89%), inadequate knowledge about conservation (83%), bushfires (78%), lower yields (78%), long maturity period of dura (69%) and lack of financial support (49%).
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A Thesis Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology Kumasi in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Agroforestry, 2012
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