ASSESSMENT OF TEMPERATURE AND RAINFALL VARIABILITY ON GRASS PRODUCTIVITY UNDER THREE FOREST RESERVES IN A SAVANNAH ECOSYSTEM IN GHANA.

The study was conducted to determine the grass biomass productivity in three selected forest reserves in the Guinea Savanna agro-ecological zone of Ghana. Prediction of grass productivity using both additive and multiplicative models showed that accuracy in terms of the predictability of the models based on the coefficient of determination (R2) was in the order Klupene (0.816) > Sinsablegbinni (0.664) > Kenikeni (0.660) for the additive model, and Klupene (0.769) > Kenikeni (0.639) > Sinsablegbinni (0.567) for the multiplicative model. It was realised that accuracy in the predictability of the models directly depended on the extent of canopy cover, soil fertility, soil type, wildfires and livestock grazing.