The taungya system was introduced to the West African sub-region with the aim of addressing land hunger for forest fringe communities. In Ghana, teak (Tectona grandis) was adopted as the main tree species for the taungya system. However, there is a perception that teak degrades the land and excludes undergrowth vegetation. The aims of this study were to identify the extent of the adoption of agroforestry by farmers. Despite the perception, and problems encountered by them. The study was carried out at Nkoranza, in the forest-savannah transitional zone of Ghana. All the teak farmers practiced some form of agroforestry. Majority of the farmers (74%) had only basic education. The natives of Nkoranza owned all the teak farms and ownership was mostly by the males. The spacing highly used was found to be 3.0 x 3.0 m, followed by 4.0 x 4.0 m and 2.0 x 2.0 m. with the percentages of farmers using the various spacing being 70, 26 and 4%, respectively. The trees were inter-planted with a mixture of food crops such as plantain. maize. yam. tomatoes, cassava and groundnuts. The reasons given for the intercropping were weed control. land suitability for crops, financial consideration, subsistence and soil fertility, with weed control being the most dominant reason. The problems enumerated by the farmers in a decreasing order were high maintenance cost. early canopy closure, dry weather, wildfires and insect pest. There was a report of decline in crop yield with stand development; and this can be attributed to early canopy closure, soil fertility decline and annual wildfires. However, the application of either inorganic fertilizer or organic manure. as well as the use of mounds ameliorated the decline in crop yield with stand development. To prolong cropping of the stands for food crops, wider spacing like 6.0 x 2.0 m and 4.0 x 4.0 m, and introduction of leguminous trees are recommended.

he N, P, K, Ca and Mg stores in Tectona grandis (Teak) ecosystem were estimated. These were used to determine the impacts of three harvesting methods (thinning, coppice-with-standard, and clear felling) combined with three levels of wood utilization (i.e. stemwood only, bole only and bole together with branches) on sustained future productivity within Teak plantation stand. Clear felling combined with any level of wood utilization exerted the greatest impact of loss on the nutrient stores. Thus sustainable production of Teak will be greatly impaired if such harvesting option is solely adopted. On the other hand, thinning above half of the stand density, coupled with stemwood utilization only will increase the nutrient drain four folds, as compared to thinning below half of the stand density and combined with total shoot utilization from the reserves. Furthermore, the rates of depletion were not specific but differed from individual nutrients. Potassium drained from the ecosystem was most rapid, followed by P, N, Mg and Ca. Thus, K and P are likely to severely limit the future productivity of the Teak stand if harvesting options like clear felling or coppice with-standard were to be adopted. The combination of harvesting options and utilization to forecast the potential sustained productivity of Teak plantation stand are discussed.