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Factors Affecting Adoption of Agroforestry Farming System
as a Mean for Sustainable Agricultural Development and Environment Conservation
in Arid Areas of Northern Kordofan State, Sudan
Siddig El Tayeb Muneer
Department of Agricultural Extension and Rural Sociology
Faculty of Food and Agricultural Sciences, P.O. Box 2460, Riyadh - 11451
King Saud University, Saudi Arabia, E-mail:
siddigmuneer@hotmail.com
Abstract
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Arid and semi-arid areas represent about 60 percent of Sudan total area.
One of the main environmental problems in the arid and semi-arid areas
is desertification which reduces the natural potential of the already
fragile ecosystems and renders rural people vulnerable to food
shortages, the vagaries of weather and natural disasters. Deforestation
which is considered one of the most critical environmental problems
facing the world is one of the main causes of desertification. Between
the years 1990 and 2005 Sudan lost about 8.8 millions hectares of
forests, which represents 11%, of its forests mainly because of
subsistence activities such as overgrazing, trees cutting and expansion
of traditional agriculture. One of the areas that are very much affected
by desertification is Northern Kordofan State. To rescue the situation
the government of Sudan, with assistance from the United Nations
Development Program (UNDP) and some donors, implemented a project that
aimed primarily at restocking Acacia Senegal trees in Northern Kordofan
State. This study is intended to explore the factors that caused
differential rate of farmers’ adoption rate of the Acacia Senegal based
agroforestry farming system. The study data was collected from a
clustered random sample of 300 farmers, through face to face interviews
using a questionnaire that was pre-tested and validated. Frequency
distribution and multiple regression analysis were used to analyze the
data. It has been found that farmers’ adoption of agroforestry farming
system in Northern Kordofan state was significantly affected by the
farmers’ level of formal education, contact with extension agents, level
of environmental awareness, cosmopoliteness, total area of owned land
and extent of social participation.
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