Impacts of farming and herding activities on land use and land cover changes in the north eastern corridor of Ghana: A comprehensive analysis

This study was conducted to investigate the effect of farming and pasture area extensions on land use and land cover in the North Eastern Corridor of Ghana. Landsat 5 TM+ image period of 2000 and Landsat 8 TOA satellite for the periods 2013 and 2022 were used. All images were captured at approximately the same period to ensure the selected images had the same reflectance values. A supervised machine learning technique using the algorithm of the random forest classifier was employed for the preparation of the classification of thematic maps. The Markov chain model was used to examine the dynamics of land use and land cover (LULC) changes in the study area. Visual appraisal of the images indicated some level of notable changes across the various classes from 2000 to 2022. The trend of the various changes in percentage terms also supports this observation. The results reveal that there was an improvement in the vegetation cover from 2000 to 2013 as reflected in the maximum and median NDVI values of the classified images within the period. However, the results show a considerable decline in vegetation health from 2013 to 22. Based on these results, we recommend that a more in-depth analysis to identify other possible anthropogenic activities and factors, that may serve as significant underlying causes of these vegetation cover changes in the region. The Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) should train farmers to incorporate tree planting into their farming whilst avoiding deforestation and bush burning within the area.