Dataset on the perceptions of smallholder cocoa farmers on biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation in West Africa

Biodiversity conservation play an important role in the development of agriculture and mitigation of climate change. However, agriculture practices have major implication biodiversity conservation through unsustainable land conversion and management. The hypothesis of this data is that many of our smallholder farmers particularly cocoa farmers in West Africa are not aware of biodiversity its conservation and benefit they can derive from it. Findings from this showed that farmers were not knowledgeable of biodiversity and it benefits to the society, Most of the respondents were not aware of the strategies or appropriate management practice they can employ on their farms to reduce biodiversity loss. Analysis of the data showed that farmers awareness of biodiversity was influenced by educational level. Suggesting that respondents with higher educational level are more likely to get assess to information related to biodiversity conservation in the study area than respondents with lower educational backgrounds
This data can be interpreted that majority of smallholder farmers not only cocoa producers have limited knowledge about sustainable practices through the agriculture sector due lack of education and training. Effort should be made by government agencies, stakeholders and NGOs to initiate programs to educate and train rural farmers particularly smallholder cocoa farmers in West Africa on sustainable agricultural practices that ensure biodiversity conservation as well as food security .