Sekyere Central

INTRODUCTION

Location and Physical Characteristics

Sekyere Central District was established in February 2008. It was carved out of the former Sekyere West District.  It is located in the northern part of Ashanti Region and shares boundaries with five districts namely, Mampong Municipality, Ejura-Sekyedumasi, Amantin-Atebubu, Sekyere Afram Plains and Sekyere East Districts.

It is basically an agricultural district with 75% of the population intagriculture.

Sekyere Central District is known for its untapped agricultural potentials. That is the Afram Plains portion of the district agricultural land which constitutes about 60% of the entire agricultural land in the District.

Despite the district underutilizing its agriculture potentials, it is one of the leading producers of maize, yam, cassava, plantain, oil palm and citrus in the region.

Capital

The capital of the district is Nsuta

 

Location

The district is located within longitude 0.050 and 1.300 W and latitudes 6.550 and 7.300N.

 

Size

The district covers a total land area of about 1,564sq.km and has about 105 settlements with about 70% being rural

Relief

The district is generally low lying and gradually rising through rolling hills stretching southward towards Nsuta. The highest point is 2400m whilst the lowest is 135m above mean sea level.

Drainage

The district is fairly drained by several streams and rivers like Afram, Sene, Sasebonso, and Kyirimfa.

Soil Type

The soil type is classify under following associations

*   Budewa-Sutawa Association

*   Ejura-Denteso Association

*   Nyankpala-Kpelesawgu- Volta Association

*   Denteso-Sene Association

*   Dukusen-Bramba Association

 

VEGETATION AND RAINFALL

The district has both forest and savannah vegetations. The district is characterized by bimodal rainfall pattern. That is the major season which starts from March to Mid August and the minor season starts from mid August to November.

The annual rainfall is between 1,200mm –1,500mm

The dry period is from December to March and during this period, the north – east trade wind (harmattan) blows dry and dusty winds across the entire district.

 

Humidity

Average temperature is 270C ranging between 220C and 300 C.

Geology

The district is underlain by Pre-Cambrian rocks of the Birimaian formation

Constituency

The district has one constituency that is Nsuta-Kwamang-Beposo

 

POPULATION CHARACTERISTICS

The estimated District Population (2008) is 75,969 with inter-censual growth rate of 1.4%. Rural population is about 63.7% whilst urban population is about 36.6%.

The following are population for major settlements:

Major settlement                                                                  Population

• Kwamang                                                                    7,225
• Nsuta                                                                           7,026
• Beposo                                                                        6,338
• Atonsu                                                                        4,770
• Jeduako                                                                       3,300
• Birem                                                                          3,212
• Kyebi                                                                          1,837
• Bonkrong                                                                    1,438

SUB-DISTRICT STRUCTURES.

There are four (4) Town Councils namely; Nsuta, Kwamang, Beposo and Atonsu, and three (3) Area Councils; Kyebi, Amoamang and Birem (Afram Plains).  Nsuta and Atonsu town Councils have been inaugurated with executive in place.

EMPLOYMENT/ ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES

The primary production in the district can be broken as follows

Agriculture                                                                  75%

Industry                                                                      15%

Services                                                                       10%

Industries

Small scale Agro – based industries like pito brewing, gari processing, oil palm extraction and soap making are carried out in the district.

Minerals

The district can boast of sand and stone deposits.

 

TOURIST ATTRACTION

The district can boast of Abasua (Atwea) mountains where all Christians and non-Christians come to pray.

Forest Reserve

The district has two reserves, namely

• Kogyae Reserve                                                          115sq.km
• Ogun and Adom Reserves                                          161.07sq.km

 

Investment Opportunities

v  Reserves of untapped stone deposits at Kwamang for chippings

v  Hospitability of the people

v  Large pool of skilled, semi-skilled labour.

AGRICULTURAL SECTOR

 

CROP AND LIVESTOCK PRODUCTION

Land Tenure:-

Ownership of  land ownership is vested in the chiefs, family or clan.

The district has potential in the following crop and livestock production;

1. Cereal:  maize and upland rice
2. Root & Tubers:  yam, cassava, plantain, cocoyam, banana and potato.
3. Vegetables:  tomatoes, carrots, cabbage, onion, pepper, egg plant and okro.
4. Cash crop: cocoa, oil palm, citrus, tree plantation – Teak.
5. Legume:  cowpea and groundnuts
6. Livestock:  goat, sheep, cattle, pig and poultry.  grasscutter and bee keeping, snail

CROPPING SYSTEM

Inter cropping and mono cropping systems are mostly practised in the district.

The intercrop system (maize intercropped with cassava/planting) are mostly practiced by the farmers in the forest area while the mono cropping system (maize and cowpea) is practiced by farmers at the Savanna area mostly the Afram Plain portion of district.

LAND PREPARATION

Farmers in the forest zone use slash and burn method for Land preparation whilst farmers in the Savanna zone which lies in the Afram Plains use tractor to plough their farming Land where the land have been stumped.

 

STORAGE

Most maize farmers in the district store their maize from the minor season in cribs wooden structure ordinary room. The maize are stored in shelled or unshelled form.

Maize from the major season is hardly stored by farmers because of high moisture content and lack of Dryers in the district.

Yams are stored on the farm in simple shelters

 

FARMER BASED ORGANISATION (FBO)

The number of Farmer Based Organization (FBO) in the District is thirty-five (35).

 

COMMERCIAL FAMERS

There are eleven (11) commercial farmers (crops & Livestock) Located across the district they have taken advantage of the available rich land in the district.

 

MARKETS

There are three (3) major markets in the district where all sorts of agriculture produces are sold.

The markets are located at Nsuta, Kwamang and Jeduako, and their respective market days are Thursday, Sunday and Tuesday.

 

AGRO-CHEMICAL STORES

The district has eight (8) Agrochemical stores located at Nsuta, Birem and Asubuaso.

 

AGRO PROCESSING

The main agro processing activity in the district is processing of cassava into gari, konkonte and flour. There is one cassava processing centre at Akyease in the district and they process cassava into flour. Small scale oil palm extraction and pito brewing are also agro processing activities in the district.

 

TOOLS AND EQUIPMENT

As a result of the location of the district with its vegetations, various types of agricultural tools and equipment are used by farmers. They include, cutlass, hoes, axe, mattock, spraying machine, tractor with it implement, shellers, Dryers, Corn mills, cassava graters, kernel crackers, rice mill, etc.

NUMBER OF TRACTORS IN THE DISTRICT

There are thirteen (13) tractors in the district.

OPERATIONAL AREA/COMMUNITY	NUMBER
Kwamang Asubuasu Nsuta Birem	2 3 3 5
Total	13

NUMBER OF SHELLERS

There are about ten (10) shellers in the district.

OPERATIONAL AREA/COMMUNITY	NUMBER
Kwamang Birem	3 7
Total	10

Other equipment in the district are as follows:

OTHER EQUIPMENT                                            Number and location

Number of Cassava Graters                –           5 (Kwamang)

Number of Kernel Crackers                –           5 (Kwamang)

Number of Dryers                                           –           2 (Akyease & Kwamang)

Number of Corn mill                           –           41 across the district

Tomato & Pepper Miller                                 –           1 (Atonsu)

 

AGRICULTURE POTENTIALS IN THE DISTRICT

There is availability of large tracks of fertile agriculture Land in the Afram Plain portion of the district for large scale/commercial farming. These lands can be located at Amoamang, Jeduako, Birem and Asubuasu settlements.

For crop and Livestock production, the district has comparative advantage in the following crop production areas. These are arranged in order of priority;

1. Maize production
2. Yam production
3. Cassava
4. In land rice

 

Tree Crops

1. Cocoa
2. Oil palm
3. Citrus
4. Teak

Animal Productions

1. Goat & Sheep production
2. Cattle production
3. Pig production

The district can also boast of potentials in Agro-processing in the following areas;

1. Cassava processing into Gari, industrial starch and Flour
2. Construction of storage facilities for maize
3. Dryers for Drying maize
4. Package of maize into 20kg & 10kg
5. Oil palm extraction

 

OTHER SERVICES

Other potential in the agricultural service is tractor services (ploughing of land and shelling of maize) in the district.

The district has only thirteen (13) tractors in four communities in the districts. The price for ploughing one acre is as follows

Acreage	Community/District	Charge
1 acre	Nsuta/Sekyere Central	35.00
“do”	Kwamang	40.00
“do”	Ejura/Ejura-Sekyedumasi	25.00

Ideally, a tractor will use 2-3 gallons of diesel to plough an acre of land. The district has only 10 shellers in two communities (Kwamang and Birem)

 

Land Availability

This district is endowed with a vast fertile land. The district can boast of former state Farm Lands at Amoamang and Jetiase covering about 1,800 acres and 180 acres respectively.

Currently the available land at Amoamang, which is 1,800 acres, cannot be fully utilized under mechanized farming because of stumps and trees on the land.

The stumps and trees would have to be removed before mechanized farming can be fully utilized.

The fertility is excellent and maize production is recommended for the Amoamang land.

The land at Jetiase, which is, about 180 acres can be used for mechanized farming, however the fertility of the soil is poor.

The fertility can be improved with application of poultry manure and the land used for vegetables (cabbage and carrot) production since there is a source of water for irrigation.

For that matter crop budget analysis has been done for maize, cabbage and carrot.

 

Other potential in the agricultural service is tractor services (ploughing and shelling of maize in the Afram Plains area.

 

OTHER PROJECTS IN THE DISTRICT

Other Agricultural projects in the district are Root and Tuber Improvement and Marketing Programme (RTIMP) and Millennium Development Authority (MiDA).

ROOT AND TUBER IMPROVEMENT (RTIMP)

Programme Goal:

The goal of RTIMP is to enhance income and food security to improve livelihoods of the rural poor and to build a market-based system to ensure profitability at all levels of the value chain.

 

MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY (MiDA)

Compact Goal & Objectives

The goal of MCA Ghana Program is poverty reduction through economic growth. The key to advancing the Compact Goal is the two-fold objective of first, to increase the production and productivity of high-value cash and food staple crops in three Intervention Zones in Ghana namely; the Southern Horticultural Belt, Afram Basin and Northern Agricultural Zones. Secondly, the objective is to enhance the competitiveness of Ghana’s high-value cash and food crops in both local and international markets.