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Abstract
Agricultural land use and the management of agricultural lands in Ghana as evidenced from
farmer practices have been analysed using descriptive and regression analysis. The analysis
shows that different land management practices affect crop yields differently in the different
ecological zones. Also, the types of land management practices farmers use differ across the
different ecological zones. The policy implication is that agricultural interventions should be
developed on the basis of agro-ecological zones, and blanket crop improvement packages
should be avoided. The recommended policy action is that food crop farmers should be
helped to improve the management of their agricultural lands by ecological zones at two
levels. First, the practices that are common and promote agricultural production in each zone
should be targeted for improvement. Such a policy will re-orient farmers towards the
adoption of more sustainable farm practices. Second, land management practices that are not
currently being used by farmers in each zone but have potential to improve crop production
should be identified and promoted in the respective agro-ecological zones. A pro-active
policy of this kind will provide farmers better land use alternatives in each ecological zone.