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Agroforestry as an Agro-Ecological Pathway to Phase Out Chemical Fertilizer Application in Smallholder Farms in Cameroon: State-of-the-Art and Policy Implications

Azembouh Roshinus Tsufac1 , Nyong Princely Awazi2 * and Martin Ngankam Tchamba1

1 Department of Forestry, Faculty of Agronomy and Agricultural Sciences, Dschang; University of Dschang, Cameroon

2 Department of Forestry and Wildlife Technology, College of Technology, The University of Bamenda, Cameroon

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.12944/CWE.17.1.9

Man and ecosystems are highly threatened by the abusive application of chemical fertilizers in a bid to enhance soil fertility and improve crop productivity. These chemical fertilizers pose serious health risks to farmers and the population at large and contribute to short and long-term soil degradation. Thus, this study was initiated to examine how agroforestry can contribute towards phasing out chemical fertilizers application in smallholder farms in the south west region of Cameroon. Data collection was done from secondary and primary sources and analyzed using inferential and descriptive statistics. Microsoft Excel 2013 and SPSS version 17 were used to run the descriptive and inferential statistics. It was found that silvopastoral, agrosilvopastoral and agrosilvicultural systems were the most dominant agroforestry systems, with different agroforestry practices like coffee-based agroforestry plantations, cut and carry fodder, home gardens, trees/shrubs on farmlands, cocoa-based agroforestry plantations, live fences, improved fallows and home gardens with livestock characterizing these three agroforestry systems. These agroforestry systems provided different ecosystem services to agroforestry practitioners with the most common being food, fuelwood, finance/income, and climate moderation. Besides food and soil fertility enhancement, very limited or no chemical fertilizer was used to obtain the other ecosystem services. There was an inverse relationship (p<0.05) between ecosystem services of agroforestry systems and chemical fertilizer application, demonstrating that chemical fertilizers are not needed to enhance the ecosystem services of agroforestry systems.  There was equally an inverse relationship (p<0.05) between agroforestry systems and chemical fertilizer application, indicating that farmers’ practice of agroforestry reduces chemical fertilizer application on farms. Agroforestry is therefore recommended as a sustainable pathway to limit and/or eradicate farmers’ application of chemical fertilizers.

Agroforestry; Cameroon; Chemical Fertilizer; Ecosystem Services; Farmers; Soil Fertility

Copy the following to cite this article:

Tsufac A. R, Awazi N. P, Tchamba M. N. Agroforestry as an Agro-Ecological Pathway to Phase Out Chemical Fertilizer Application in Smallholder Farms in Cameroon: State-of-the-Art and Policy Implications. Effects. Curr World Environ 2022;17(1). DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.12944/CWE.17.1.9

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Tsufac A. R, Awazi N. P, Tchamba M. N. Agroforestry as an Agro-Ecological Pathway to Phase Out Chemical Fertilizer Application in Smallholder Farms in Cameroon: State-of-the-Art and Policy Implications. Effects. Curr World Environ 2022;17(1). Available From:

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