PLEC GHANA

Conservation practices & improvement of rural livelihood

As a result of the conservation promotion drive, mulching with chopped vegetation in a practice called oprowka (or proka), which avoids ecologically destructive burning, is on the increase, as are the following practices:

• Management of assorted yams within agroforestry systems
• Usage of forests conserved nearby for beekeeping, honey and wax, which has grown to involves over 70 households with great prospects for further expansion
• Establishment of woodlots and plant nurseries which yield poles, firewood and seedlings in commercial quantities
• Conservation and production of local varieties of rare domestic fowls and rice, Oryza glaberrima, on a commercial scale
• Management of medicinal plants within conserved forest or arboretum
• Growing of food crops among trees conserved in situ in farms
• Propagation of plantain and certain other crops through the split-corm technique
• Grafting and budding of plants

Because of the commercial orientation of these and other conservation practices encouraged by PLEC, rural livelihoods and incomes are being improved. The process is encouraged by enthusiastic response of farmers to other value addition or income generating activities, notably the following, which are promoted by PLEC to motivate farmers to conserve:

• Processing of cassava, a primary cash crop, into flour for bread and pastry, which involves a sizeable number of females
• Spinning and weaving of cotton, another important cash crop, into cloth by youthful women, which is helping to curb rural out-migration
• Raising of snails, a delicacy in some of the demonstration sites
• Piggery, introduced as the nucleus of a swine dispersal project

Overall achievements

Enrichment of biodiversity through PLEC interventions, above all those focused on promotion of agrodiversity and related activities, is manifested, among other things, by:

• Apparent increased plant pollination and utilization of nectar by bees kept in home gardens and forests conserved nearby
• Conservation and development of arboreta harboring various species of medicinal plants
• Production of rare types of yam, Dioscorea, within agroforestry systems
• Integration of citrus and oil palms into traditional systems of food cropping
• Development, by a local farmer, of an unique system of crop management based on a combination of traditional and modern practices that has become a model because of its biodiverse character and high productivity
• Regeneration of deforested areas
• Revival of the traditional agroforestry practice of growing crops alongside trees conserved in situ within farms
• Increased number of biodiverse school gardens

Against this background and recalling the enthusiasm of farmers and their children for PLEC work, the demonstrated commitment of scientists to the PLEC cause, the co-operation and support of government, and the capacity developed by PLEC for improvement of rural livelihoods through agrodiversity, we can confidently expect the PLEC initiative to be sustained.

Publication & Report

(List of Publication)

• Final Report [WORD file - 1.0 MB]

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