Background: Land-use systems that sequester carbon and reduce CO₂ emissions are key in the global mitigation strategies of climate change. Greenhouse gas emission from agro-ecosystems in sub-Saharan Africa is little studied. Here, we quantified soil carbon stock (SCS) and CO₂ emissions from three land-use systems viz. arable land, oil palm plantation and forestland in the semi-deciduous forest zone of Ghana. Results: Soil organic carbon concentration at the 0–15 cm layer in the forestland was 62 and 23% greater than that in the arable land and palm plantation, respectively. The SCS along the 1.0-m profile was 108.2, 99.0 and 73.5 Mg ha⁻¹ in the forestland, palm plantation and arable land, respectively. Arable land emitted 30–46% more CO₂ than palm plantation and forestland. In the dry season, CO₂ emissions were respectively 0.93, 0.63 and 0.5 kg ha⁻¹ h⁻¹ from the arable land, palm plantation and forestland. Positive relationships were observed between CO₂ emissions and SCS, soil temperature, and moisture. The SCS greatly influenced CO₂ emission in the dry season more than in the wet season in the relatively higher carbon-input systems (forestland and palm plantation). Soil temperature accounted for more than 55% of CO₂ emissions in both seasons, which has implications in the era of rising global temperatures. Conclusions: The study provides relevant information on carbon storage abilities of the three land-use types in tropical climate and calls for drastic climate change actions to reduce degradation of forest cover and soil disturbance in agro-ecosystems in sub-Saharan Africa.

This study investigates the perceptions of cocoa farmers in Offinso and Adansi Districts, Ghana, regarding the impact of climate change on their yields, income, and food security. The findings aim to inform policy development and potential mitigation and adaptation strategies. A total of 282 cocoa farmers participated alongside Key Informants. The results indicate a strong consensus among farmers that climate change has negatively affected their yields (0.518 ± 0.501), increased pest and disease prevalence (0.518 ± 0.501), and contributed to cocoa tree mortality (0.482 ± 0.501). This perception is reinforced by the ranking of challenges, where poor yields and increased pest/disease emerged as the most prominent challenges (Relative Importance Index of 0.87 and 0.79, respectively). Interestingly, farmers' perceptions diverged regarding food security. They expressed neutrality towards statements suggesting a negative climate change impact on their food security status (Perception Index = 2.89). These findings highlight the critical challenge of reduced cocoa yield due to climate change for farmers. It is therefore recommended that the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), through its extension division, implement immediate actions to educate farmers within the two districts on climate change mitigation strategies. This intervention aligns with achieving the Sustainable Development Goals 1 (No Poverty), 2 (Zero Hunger), and 13 (Climate Action). Received: 26 April 2024 | Revised: 18 June 2024 | Accepted: 6 August 2024 Conflicts of Interest The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest to this work. Data Availability Statement Data are available on request from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. Author Contribution Statement John Tennyson Afele: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Validation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Data Curation, Writing - Original Draft, Writing - Review & Editing, Visualization. Olivia Agbenyega: Conceptualization, Methodology, Validation, Resources, Writing - Review & Editing, Supervision, Funding acquisition. Victor Rex Barnes: Conceptualization, Resources, Supervision, Project administration, Funding acquisition. Steve Amisah: Conceptualization, Project administration, Funding acquisition. Finn Plauborg: Writing - Review & Editing. Søren Marcus Pedersen: Writing - Review & Editing. Torsten Rødel Berg: Conceptualization. Joseph Anokye: Methodology, Data Curation. Stephen Yaw Opoku: Methodology, Data Curation. Richard Asante: Methodology, Data Curation. Eunice Nimo: Conceptualization, Data Curation, Writing - Review & Editing, Visualization. Evans Dawoe: Conceptualization, Supervision.

The application of the resilience concept within socioecological systems has recently received much attention. Assessing the characteristics of cocoa agroecosystems in the dry and moist semi-deciduous ecological zones has become critical for resilience analysis in this era of climate change and the constant shrinking of cocoa suitability areas. Previous studies have used one of the dimensions of resilience to analyse complex adaptive systems, excluding critical factors and variables. This study applied a multi-criteria decision-making process, the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) that accommodates the three dimensions of resilience, i.e., buffer capacity, adaptive capacity and self-organisation. The AHP is a multi-criteria decision-making tool that proceeds with the design of a hierarchy system for the goal, criteria, attributes and variables. Selected cocoa farmers were assigned weights related to criteria, attributes and variables in a comparison matrix. The resilience of the cocoa agroecosystems in Offinso Municipal and Adansi North Districts was 2.75 ± 0.06 (mean ± SD) and 3.23 ± 0.10 (mean ± SD), respectively. Buffer capacity contributed the highest proportion (44.3%) in the Offinso Municipal District, followed by adaptive capacity (38.7%) and self-organisation (17%). A similar trend was recorded for the Adansi North District: buffer capacity (42.9%), adaptive capacity (42.9%) and self-organisation (14.3%). Across the two study areas, shade trees, crop diversification, soil quality, cocoa variety, farm size, farm age, alternative livelihood, annual income and co-operative membership contributed prominently to the construction of cocoa agroecosystem resilience. The assessment of agroecosystem resilience is location-specific, and the study provides a simplified methodology for evaluating resilience. The paper aims to understand the importance of the components of the cocoa agroecosystem, and a simplified methodology for evaluating its resilience to perturbations. It presents a conceptual and methodological framework for the analysis and measurement of agroecosystem resilience in a participatory manner.