Title: Assessing farmers’ perception and adoption of sustainable land management practice in integrated landscape management: A case study in Talensi District of the Ghana sustainable land and water management project

Since the 1980’s, the government of Ghana has implemented various land management projects to address land degradation and improve the livelihoods of people in the Upper East region. Despite these interventions, the Upper East region remains the most degraded and the poorest region in Ghana, partly due to the sectoral approach employed in the implementation of these projects. As a result, the government of Ghana in 2010 adopted the integrated landscape management approach for the Ghana Sustainable Land and Water Management Project. This study aimed to shed light on the socio-economic and ecological impacts of the Ghana Sustainable Land and Water Management Project from the farmers’ perspective, and to highlight farmers’ reasons for the adopted and non-adopted technologies. The study was conducted in Talensi district, of Upper East region of Ghana. The study sampled 20 farmers from two communities (Yameriga and Pwalugu). Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data from the participants. Enhancement in crop yields and farm incomes, increased women’s participation in decision making and women’s access to resources, and job opportunities were the socio-economic benefits respondents indicated from the project, whilst soil fertility and soil moisture improvement, reduction in soil erosion, and reduction in number of bushfire cases were the ecological impacts of the project highlighted by the respondents. The respondents generally preferred the agronomic technologies (cereal-legume associations and composting) which have ‘‘short-term returns’’ and require less or no annual maintenance labour. Private benefits the respondents perceived to derive from the technologies, and poor farmland conditions appeared to be the reasons why the respondents have adopted some technologies. Limited farmland was the reason the respondents cited for not practicing certain technologies.