© 2019 Agriculture and Forestry Journal This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 3.0 International License        Vol. 3, Issue 1, pp. 1-5, June, 2019 http://ojs.univ-tlemcen.dz/index.php/AFJ/ E-ISSN 2602-5795 Published by university of Tlemcen - ALGERIA Contribution of agroforestry to improving food security in the sagnarigu district of northern Ghana Ammal ABUKARI Department of Forestry and Forest Resources Management, Faculty of Natural Resources and Environment, University for Development Studies – Tamale, Ghana. Email: aammal@uds.edu.gh ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Article history: Received: 11 March 2019 Accepted after corrections 20 May 2019 Keywords: Adoption, Agroforestry, Technology, Food security, Livelihood. In most sub-Sahara African (SSA) countries there are increasing demands for the use of agricultural land and forest products. This results in the deterioration of agricultural productivity and the degradation of agricultural lands. Technologies in Agroforestry (AF) have been recommended in the tropics as one of the answers to productivity and the shortage of land owing to both forestry and agricultural products as a potential of agroforestry. The rate of agroforestry technologies adoption is not promising in Ghana although interventions of agroforestry have been practiced for many years. Limited and little education on the technology’s ability to improve food security, decline poverty, and its socio-economics has led to its less adoption. This survey is however conducted in the Sagnarigu district of northern Ghana to determine the factors that influences the rate of adoption of agroforestry technologies and how agroforestry has the potential to contribute to food security. Data were collected by the use of questionnaire administration, group discussion and the use of key informants. The research revealed that there are high crop yields, available wood products for fuelwood and poles, and improved food security of households when agroforestry technologies were adopted. This research however recommends that agroforestry strategies should be used for improving food security and livelihood among the rural folks and should be strengthened. 1. Introduction In Ghana agriculture is an important cradle of livelihood of majority of rural folks. These farmers accomplish their farm endeavors using ancient approaches. The efficiency of these ancient approaches to production are largely low and this results to low living standards of the rural folks. Additionally, lack of up-to-date knowledge of farming approaches to farmers has been a contributory factor of low productivity to agricultural land. This is triggered by the dependency of farmers on cash crops in the rural areas, lack of stable market prices and production of annual crops. According to Katani (1999) the result of excessive pressure on agricultural lands has led to soil erosion, overgrazing, scarcity of woody materials and cultivation in marginal land. Agroforestry is defined as a dynamic, ecologically based natural resource management system that, through the integration of trees on farms and in the agricultural landscape, diversifies and sustains production for increased social, economic and environmental benefits for land-users at all levels (Leakey, 1996). Agroforestry is commonly beseeched as key to problems associated to the degradation of land, deforestation, scarcity of wood materials and low crop yields. Agroforestry has been recommended to improve food security and also reduces poverty levels among rural folks; the significance and degree of adoption among many rural folks in Ghana have not been widely understood. Agroforestry technologies are expected to be a multipurpose land use system and has been recommended as the answer to accomplish sustainability and the present land use management payable to its numerous benefits comprising; conservation of soil fertility, fuelwoods and building materials, soil erosion control, increasing crop yields, increasing income, fruits and fodder (Senkondo, 1994). Agroforestry is not entirely practiced in numerous rural areas of Ghana despite all its potential. Accounts from Thangataa and Hildebrand (2012) submit that the practice of agroforestry by farmers presents a lot of benefits such as the augmentation of soil fertility and the improvement of the flexibility of farm households through the delivery of extra outputs either for sale and or consumption. The understanding that trees on farmlands affords livelihood benefits is not new, and diversity-based methods to agricultural adaptation to climate variability have been adopted by many farmers (Nguyen et al., 2013). In many parts of Africa the adoption of agroforestry technologies has not been prevalent, owing to the performance of agroforestry practices, political and socioeconomic environment. Many agroforestry practices researches have revealed that agroforestry can improve degraded lands, sequester carbon and secure rural folks livelihoods through the supply of ecological and economic benefits. Additionally the increase of soil fertility, tree management by farmers provides ecosystem services and functions (Torquebiau, 2000). Agroforestry has the attributes of sustaining and intensifying the practices of farming to