This data is the result of collecting opinions of stakeholders on how they decide to use their land use products for generating benefits (food provision, fodder provision, energy provision, construction material provision and market value provision).

MOFA regional retail and wholesale prices on popular crops (2007-2010): - rice - tomato - chili - maize - millet and others

This graph illustrates the ties/relationships which exist in farmer-herder conflicts in southern Ghana. Contrary to what is often said the Fulani herders are not always those who cause conflict. They also develop strong ties with local associations, opinion leaders and represent an important workforce for large livestock owners. The density of relations does not end only with these relations above described, but it also involves the security agents and officials of the Ghanaian government who most often intervene in the resolution of conflicts.

Table with sorghum phenology observations (primary/raw) from central field experiment plots in the Vea catchment (one of main research sites in the WASCAL Core Research Program), Ghana, 2013.

This table contains survey data whether the forage resources cited by local agro-pastoralists were increasing or decreasing rapidly or gradually or were being stable or they had no idea at all.

This table contains survey data whether the forage resources cited by local agro-pastoralists were many, few or rare in numbers.

These are data collected on the biomass production of five multi-purpose tree species (Moringa oleifera Lam., Jatropha curcas L., Leucaena leucocephala Lam., Anacardium occidentale L., and Parkia biglobosa Jacq.) from an afforestation trial conducted in the semi-arid zone of Northern Benin during 2014 and 2015. Seedlings were planted in July 2014 and the data were collected at the end of the first rainy season (October-November 2014), the start (May 2015) and end of the second rainy season (September-October 2015).

In the Sudan Savanna region of West Africa, smallholder agricultural production is almost entirely rain-fed. Some of the major constraints to crop production are low soil fertility and high intra- and inter-annual rainfall variability. The above constraints motivated us to investigate the impact of climate change and different soil and water conservation techniques, for both high and low intensity nitrogen fertilization on yield and yield stability of key crops namely, maize, cotton and sorghum in the Sudan Savanna of Ghana (Vea), Benin (Dassari) and Burkina Faso (Dano). In the empirical studies, we evaluated the effect of tillage practices (contour and reduced tillage), nitrogen fertilizer rates (no nitrogen-N0, recommended nitrogen-NREC and high nitrogen-N2REC) and residue management (improved and standard) on the yield of maize, sorghum and cotton, for two landscape positions (upslope and footslope) in an on-farm researcher managed experiment. The 3 locations each with 3 growing seasons (2012, 2013 and 2014) were analyzed as 9 contrasting or site-seasons. Over all site-seasons, crops planted at the footslope had 31% higher relative yields and 18% higher relative aboveground biomass than those planted at the upslope. Generally, the use of contour ridging in combination with improved residue management and recommended N fertilizer was justified regardless of site-seasons and landscape position. The experimental data from short season maize (Dorke SR) was used to parameterize and evaluate the cropping system model, Decision System for Agro technology Transfer (DSSAT V 4.6) CERES-Maize. The simulated effects of climate change and adaptation options to reduce negative effect of climate change on maize were assessed. Daily climatic data for the period 2040-2060 under the scenarios RCP 4.5 and 8.5 were obtained from Regional Climate Model version 4 (RegCM4). Both scenarios show an increase in mean temperature of 0.7, 1.5 and 1.7oC for Dano, Vea and Dassari respectively as compared to baseline 1985-2004. Precipitation is projected to increase by 40, 44 and 47% in Dano, Vea and Dassari respectively by 2050 under the two scenarios. Assessment of climate impacts on maize grain yield suggest a reduction in yield of 72, 42 and 41% for Dano , Vea and Dassari for no N fertilizer and a reduction in yield of 53, 37 and 11% for Dano, Vea and Dassari respectively under recommended N fertilizer. Analysis of adaptation measures (recommended nitrogen fertilizer, contour ridges and improved residues management as adaptation No 1 (NREC) and high nitrogen, contour ridges and improved residue management as adaptation No 2 (N2REC) with both adaptations tested under single and split dose of nitrogen application) indicated substantial reduction of negative impacts of climate change on maize grain yield as compared to the current practice by farmers (without adaptation). N2REC and NREC were able to reduce the negative impact of climate change on current maize production in the Sudan Savanna by 75 and 45% respectively. On the two methods of N fertilizer application, model estimated 64% for split and 56% for single nitrogen fertilizer application in reducing negative impact of climate change across the three sites relative to the current farmers’ practices. The biggest benefit of reducing the effect of climate change on maize in this study will be the replacement of short season Dorke SR with long duration high temperature tolerant maize cultivar with high thermal requirements. This cultivar will develop under more favorable thermal and rainfall conditions, increasing the duration of vegetative phase, which intend will lead to increased yield. Policy makers should therefore create the enabling environment for farmers to afford credits to change crop and agronomic strategies in response to negative impact of climate change. Additionally improving the knowledge and skills of the few extension agents in the Sudan Savanna region on climate change and adaptation strategies is crucial in successful adaptation program to combat climate change.

Recording local ecological knowledge (LEK) is a useful approach to understanding interactions of the complex social-ecological systems. In spite of the recent growing interest in LEK studies on the effects of climate and land use changes, livestock mobility decisions and other aspects of agro-pastoral systems, LEK on forage plants has still been vastly under-documented in the West African savannas. Using a study area ranging from northern Ghana to central Burkina Faso, we thus aimed at exploring how aridity and socio-demographic factors drive the distributional patterns of forage-related LEK among its holders. With stratified random sampling, we elicited LEK among 450 informants in 15 villages (seven in Ghana and eight in Burkina Faso) via free list tasks coupled with ethnobotanical walks and direct field observations. We performed generalized linear mixed-effects models (aridity- and ethnicity-based models) and robust model selection procedures. Our findings revealed that LEK for woody and herbaceous forage plants was strongly influenced by the ethnicity-based model, while aridity-based model performed better for LEK on overall forage resources and crop-related forage plants. We also found that climatic aridity had negative effect on the forage-related LEK across gender and age groups, while agro- and floristic diversity had positive effect on the body of LEK. About 135 species belonging to 95 genera and 52 families were cited. Our findings shed more light on how ethnicity and environmental harshness can markedly shape the body of LEK in the face of global climate change. Better understanding of such a place-based knowledge system is relevant for sustainable forage plants utilization and livestock production.