Chapter 2. Agricultural production

Principal agricultural crops

The principal agricultural crops produced in Ghana may be grouped as shown in Table 6.

Figure 4 shows a simulated land use map of Ghana. Cocoa and oil-palm are the dominant crops in the wetter southwest of the country, and maize, millet, sorghum and groundnuts in the drier north. Cassava is found between these zones and in the southeast.

Cereals

The quantities of cereals produced between 1961/63 and 2001/03 are shown in Figure 5. The yields during the same period are given in Figure 6. Maize production increased considerably due mainly to increase in area as the yield increase is not proportional with the production increase. Sorghum and millet production is affected by seasonal droughts in the northern savanna.

TABLE 6
Crop groups

Industrial crops

Table 7 shows the development of the production of six industrial crops.

The cocoa industry is the source of income and livelihood for about 25 percent of Ghana’s population (ISSER, 2000). Between 1990 and 1999, the industry contributed an average of 31 percent of total foreign exchange earnings annually and an average of 12 percent of total annual government revenue. The relative proportion has tended to decline but in 2003, a year with a rather high cocoa price, it still represented 27 percent of total export earnings.

TABLE 7
Production of industrial crops (‘000 tonnes)

Source: MOFA, 2003.

The cocoa crop covers about 28 percent of the cropped land. The main growing areas are in central and southwest Ghana. Cocoa is produced mainly on about 700 000 small "crop tree" farms. The average cocoa farm covers 1.2 ha but there are a few large plantations.

Farmers normally burn small parts of the secondary forest to open up new cocoa land. After clearing, they intercrop the cocoa with maize, yams, plantains and cassava. In the early years, plantains grow fast and provide shade. After five years, the cocoa plants have developed a closed canopy and farmers then grow the crop as a monoculture. Most farmers do not apply fertilizer on cocoa. Without fertilization, yields decrease after 20 years, but production is possible for up to 50 years. The average cocoa yield is about 300 kg/ha compared with the potential yield of 1.0 to 1.5 tonnes/ha.

The area planted to industrial crops in 2002 is given in Table 8. The area of cocoa is highest, accounting for 78 percent of the total planted area of the industrial crops listed.

Oil-palm is the second most important industrial crop after cocoa. The growth of the area of oil-palm from 1994 to 1999 is presented in Table 9.

TABLE 8
Area planted to some industrial crops, 2002

Source: MOFA, 2003; FAOSTAT.

TABLE 9
Oil-palm area

Source: MOFA, 2003.

Starchy food crops other than cereals

The important starchy food crops other than cereals are yam, cocoyam, plantain and cassava. The trends in the areas planted to these crops are given in Table 10. The areas of cassava and yam have increased consistently.

TABLE 10
Planted areas of some starchy crops other than cereals (‘000 ha)

Source: MOFA, 2003; FAOSTAT.

TABLE 11
Production of some starchy crops other than cereals (‘000 tonnes)

Source: MOFA, 2003; FAOSTAT.

TABLE 12
Exports of some vegetable crops

Source: ISSER, 2003.

The quantities of these starchy crops produced between 1997 and 2003 are given in Table 11. In terms of total production over the period considered, the share of cassava was about 54 percent followed by yam with 21 percent, plantain with 13 percent and cocoyam with 11 percent.

Edible legumes

The two most important edible legumes in Ghana are cowpea and groundnut. In 2002, the total domestic production of cowpea and groundnut amounted to 140 000 tonnes and 520 000 tonnes respectively (MOFA, 2003).

Vegetables

Tomato is the major vegetable crop in Ghana. The other important vegetable crops are pepper/chilies, eggplant and okra. The total area planted to tomato in 2002 was 26 700 ha, while the area planted to the other vegetables amounted to 13 700 ha. Information on the total production of vegetables is not documented. However, the quantities of some selected vegetables that were exported between 2001 and 2002 are presented in Table 12.

Fruit

Ghana produces a number of fruits, mostly for domestic consumption. The most important exported fruit is pineapple. Fertilizer use on pineapple is fairly high, because pineapple is grown on sandy soils as the crop needs well drained soils. In 2002, the total area planted to pineapple stood at 5 000 ha (MOFA, 2003). The quantities of some selected fruits exported in 2001 and 2002 are given in Table 13.

TABLE 13
Exports of some fruit crops

Source: ISSER, 2003.

Crops grown in the various agro-ecological zones

The major food crops grown in the different agro-ecological zones are given in Table 14. Maize and rice are produced in all the agro-ecological zones. The highest production of maize is in the Transition Zone while the highest production of cassava is in the Semi-deciduous Forest Zone. The highest production of millet is in the Sudan Savannah Zone, that of sorghum and rice in the Guinea Savannah Zone (Table 15).

TABLE 14
Major crops grown in the agro-ecological zones

Source: Gerken et al., 2001.

TABLE 15
Production of selected crops in the agro-ecological zones