CAPITAL: Asesewa

 LOCATION

The district is located within latitudes 6⁰ 20” North and 6⁰50”North and longitudes 0⁰ 30”West and 0⁰ 00” West.

LAND AREA

Covers an area of 885 sq. km constituting 4.8% of the total land area of the Eastern Region.

BOUNDARIES

The district shares boundary with the Volta Lake in the north, Fanteakwa District in the west, Asuogyaman District in east, Yilo Krobo District in the south-west and Lower Manya Krobo in the south-east.

DEMOGRAPHICCHARACTERISTICS

PopulationSizeandGrowthRate

The estimated population of Upper Manya Krobo District as at 2000 stood as 89,646 people.

The Table below shows projected population distribution by the area councils in the district up to 2008.

Projected Population Distributions by Area Councils

Source: Manya Krobo District Water and Sanitation Plan II (2006-2009)

PHYSICAL FEATURES

CLIMATE

The district falls within the semi-equatorial climate belt. It has two major seasons, namely the wet and dry seasons. The wet season is from April to early August and from September to October. August is normally dry and cold with November to March being dry and warm. The total amount of rainfall is between 900 mm and 1,150 mm.  Relative humidity is high during the wet season between 70% and 80% and low in the dry season about 55% – 60%.

Two major winds affect the climate of the district. These are the wet South-west trade winds which blow across the district from the Atlantic Ocean between March and July and the Northeast trade winds (harmattan) from the Sahara desert between November and early March.

Temperature

The temperatures are generally high with average ranging between about 26º C and 32º C.

Relief and Drainage

The topography of the district can be generally described as undulating. The highest point in the district is over 660 meters above sea level located in the southern part of Sekesua. The lowest area which is located in the south- eastern part of the district is about 50 meters above sea level.  The average height of the land is about 452 meters above sea level.  Underlying these landmasses are several rocks or parent rocks from which several rocks have developed.

The district is drained with several rivers such as the Volta, Dawado and Anyaboni. With the exception of the Volta River, almost all these rivers are seasonal with most of them overflowing their banks during the rainy season

Vegetation

The dominant vegetation cover is semi-deciduous forest and derived Savannah zone.

Human activities on the vegetation have resulted in scattered patches of secondary or broken forest. Traditional practices such as collection of fuel wood, charcoal burning and overgrazing coupled with climate change have degraded the vegetation. Because of these the semi-deciduous forest is gradually turning into savannah woodland especially at areas like Akateng, Sesiamang and Akotoe.

These activities have resulted in low crop yields, poor soil fertility, surface run-off and erosion among others.

Ceiba (Onyina), neem, mango and cassia are also abundant in the district.

Soils

Soil classification, characteristics & crop suitability

LAND USE

Land Tenure Systems

Land is acquired in the following ways in the district:

1. Individual ownership or inheritance.
2. Rent or hiring from land owners.
3. Mortgage

Land tenure arrangements include;

1. Owner occupancy: – This is where the farmer is the owner of the land on which he / she works and provides all the necessary inputs for production.
2. Share Tenancy: – This is ‘abunu’ or ‘busa’ share cropping system. Under this system the land owner leases the land to the farmer and the farm produce  is shared equally (abunu) or a third goes to the land lord, while two-thirds goes to the tenant (abusa)

Availability of Mechanized Areas

Farm holdings are small and scattered over the district, in some cases at considerable distance from one another. It is therefore uneconomical to introduce mechanization on a large scale. However, individual farmers engage the services of tractors to plough their fragmented lands.

Farm Tools

Cutlasses, hoes, mattock, spraying machines and large equipment such as tractors are the farm implements use for farming in the district.

It is extremely difficult for most of the small holder farmers to afford labour saving implements like tractor, simply because they do not have enough funds.

Therefore, only few farmers are able to use modern agricultural technologies.

Also, most of the farmers apply agrochemicals to control weeds and prepare their lands.

Farm Labour

Most of the farmers in the district depend on family labour to till their lands. The average age of the farmers is 40-70 years. These farmers are old and do not have enough energy to work for longer hours so their output is usually low.

Hired labour is very expensive and also scarce in the area. Labour is hired mostly during land preparation and harvesting.

There are some few group farms which employ the services of group members to carry out farm activities such as land preparation, planting, weeding and harvesting. Because of the large numbers of the group, they are able to cultivate large areas.

Availability of Excess Farm Lands

The district can boast of large tract of riverine vegetation suitable for all year round irrigation farming. The soils can also support high value crops such chilies, rice and tree crops such as mangoes.  This potential if tapped well can turn the district into bread basket of the region.

Below is a map showing the irrigation potential of the district;

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map showing the irrigation potential of the district

Farming Systems

The people of the district, mainly Krobos, are Huza farmers. Huza system is a settlement pattern where owners of the lands settle on their farms with their farm families. This system enables the farmers to have frequent visits to their farms and protect their lands from encroachers.

Nonetheless, the system makes extension delivery very difficult, due to the fact that officers have to cover long distances to transfer technology to the farmers who are separated from one another far apart.

Most of these farmers practise mix-cropping and mixed-farming with others engaging in mono cropping.

AGRICULTURAL INVESTMENT POTENTIALS

Crop Production

The district is an agricultural one due to the fact that natural resources namely; arable land and water resources abounds in it. The soils in the district are also suitable for a lot of crops, some of which are maize, cassava, rice, vegetables and tree crops.

Yam and cocoyam are cultivated mainly at Sekesua and Sutapong operational areas. Plantain is cultivated in Asesewa and Sekesua zones. Rice is cultivated in Anyaboni zone. Pepper is cultivated alongside the local vegetables at Akotoe, Asesewa, Sekesua and Otrokper.

Animal Husbandry

About 25% of the population practice livestock farming. Animals reared include cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, poultry and grasscutters. Asesewa, Anyaboni, Akorkorma, Sesiamang and Sekesua are the main livestock rearing areas.

Fishing/Aquaculture

Fishing is the main activity carried out by the people along the Volta Lake and rivers. Some of these communities are include; Akateng, Akorkorma, Battorkope, Akrusu and Ponponya. People around Akateng and its environs are also engaged in fish production using cage culture.

MAJOR ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES

Agriculture is the main economic activity of the people of the district, employing about 80% of the population. 50% of these people are engaged in crop farming, cultivating 21,226.05 hectares of arable land. Most of the farmers in the district are subsistence farmers with very few commercial ones. The farmers produce food crops such as maize, cassava, plantain and vegetables and tree crops including oil palm and mango.

Also, 20% of the agriculture population is into animal farming. The animals they rear are cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, poultry and grasscutters.

Fishers who engage in both wild fishing in the lakes and rivers and cage culture forms 10% of the farming population.

Other income generating activities exist in the district employing about 20% of the total population. These people are mainly traders who engage in the sale of farm produce, operation of provision stores and petty trading. Others also engage in food processing activities such as fish smoking, gari processing, extraction of palm oil and distilling of alcoholic beverages

Operators of commercial vehicles also employ a number of the youth in the district.

One rural bank and two private investment companies located at Asesewa also employ a portion of the population.

Below is a table showing the main income generating activities in the district:

MAJOR SOURCES OF INCOME

Source: Manya Krobo District Medium Term Development Plan (2006-2009)

PRODUCTION FIGURES FOR CULTIVATED CROPS

LIVESTOCK AND POULTRY REARED IN THE DISTRICT

AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION SERVICE

The district has four zones (4) namely; Asesewa, Sekesua, Anyaboni and Sesiamang zones and Twenty (20) operational areas within which extension services are delivered to the farmers. Farmers are assisted through home visits, field days and demonstrations where modern agricultural technologies are transferred to them to increase food production in the district.

STORAGE FACILITIES
No storage facilities exist for fruits, vegetables and other perishable farm produce in the district, therefore, farmers are compiled to sell their produce fresh.

Even though, some modern storage facilities such as silos warehousing exist in the district, they need complete renovation to be fully utilized. Therefore, traditional barns, narrow cribs and roof top storage serve as the main storage facilities for maize.

Post harvest loss in the district is high because of lack of storage facilities.

In the fisheries and animal production sectors, there are no cold storage facilities to store the slaughtered animals and fishes.

Agricultural Input Use

Seed

The farmers use improved and local seeds. The improved or certified seeds are obtained from accredited agrochemical shops while the local seeds are obtained from farmers’ previous crop harvest.

Fertilizer

Chemical fertilizers and organic manure are used to increase soil fertility in the district but on a small scale.

The chemical fertilizers include, compound fertilizers such as NPK 15:15:15 and NPK 23:10:05 and nitrogenous fertilizers such as Sulphate of Ammonia and Urea.

About 50% of the farmers, who use fertilizer, apply NPK 15:15:15 and Sulphate of Ammonia.

Poultry droppings and cow dug is used by very few farmers to improve fertility of the soil.

The rate of fertilizer application is 100kg of compound fertilizer per acre. For the nitrogenous fertilizers, the application rate is 50kg per acre.

Due to high prices of fertilizers about 50% of the farmers do not apply any form of fertilizer at all.

Agrochemical

Agrochemical use especially herbicides have become very common among farmers in the district. This is due to the laborious nature of the slash and burn system of land preparation and also presence of tree stumps on the land.

Some maize, mango and vegetable farmers also use pesticides and fungicides to control pests and diseases.

Marketing of Agricultural Products

Markets play a very vital role in the agricultural value chain. The district can boast of three major markets. During the various market days, middlemen from within and outside the district undertake marketing of the farm produce. Majority of these marketers are wholesalers who buy the produce in bulk and transport them to urban marketing centers.

The prices of the various commodities in the district depend on the season of the year or demand and supply of the commodity at a time. Prices of commodities are generally low during the major season where there is glut on the market. The lean season usually records very high prices of produce since demand for the commodities is high during this period.

Even though prices of farm produce are determined by demand and supply, middlemen usually bargain with the farmers for low prices in order to maximize their profit; a situation which is unfavourable to the farmers.

MAJOR MARKETING CENTERS

There are three main marketing centers in the district even though few community markets exist. These are Asesewa, Akateng and Sekesua markets. The busiest of the three markets is Asesewa. Below is a table showing the various market days.

MAJOR MARKETING CENTERS

Raw materials and processed goods are sold on these markets. A variety of local staples, vegetables, agro-inputs, textiles, hardware, handicrafts, livestock, poultry products, fish products, edible oil and industrial goods are also sold on these markets.

There is also a cattle market at Akateng, a fishing community.

MAJOR TOWNS AND ROAD NETWORKS

Road network in the district is generally poor. The road from Otrokper to Asesewa is tarred. However, the road linking Asesewa to Akateng; a major fishing and marketing community is tarred up to Sesiamang with the rest untarred. From Akatewiah to Sekesua and from Korlewa to Anyaboni were tarred but are now in a very deplorable state.

The feeder road linking Sekesua to Tenguanya and that linking Asesewa through Akumersu have been graveled. All other feeder roads are in very poor state. The poor nature of the roads is seriously affecting transportation of agricultural produce from the farming communities to the marketing centers mainly during the rainy season.

AGRICULTURAL INTERVENTION PROJECTS

The government through its development partners is currently running various projects in the district geared towards poverty reduction among the farming population. These projects include;

1. Millennium Development Authority(MiDA) Program
2. Root and Tuber Improvement Project (RTIMP)
3. Export Marketing and Awareness Project (EMQAP)

Millennium Development Authority (MiDA) Program

MiDA program is aimed at reducing poverty among farmers through agriculture transformation. Under this program fourteen (14) Farmer Based Organizations (FBOs) benefitted from business and technical training as well as an acre worth of starter pack (farm inputs). The idea was to orientate the mind of the farmer to think like a business person rather than farming as a way of life. After the technical training he is to put all that he has learnt into practice by cultivating an acre of land.

The district is again one of the beneficiaries of Agricultural Business Center (ABC) which is currently under construction by MiDA to promote marketing of cereals and also reduce post harvest loss of cereals.

Few of the farmers benefitted from credit facilities to expand their farms and participate in the export market.

Below is the list of the MiDA FBOs in the district:

MiDA FARMER BASED ORGANIZATIONS (FBOs)

Root and Tuber Improvement Project (RTIMP)

Under RTIMP project, the district is benefiting from improve cassava planting material multiplication. The improved varieties for multiplication are Bankye, hemaa and Afisiafi.

The target for 2011 activities includes cultivation of 10 acres of secondary and 62.5 acres of tertiary cassava planting materials. Two Hundred Sixty (260) farmers are expected to benefit from the project this year.

Export Marketing and Awareness Project (EMQAP)

A number of training workshops, sensitization meetings, home and farm visits aimed at building farmers capacity to increase productivity for export marketing have been organized for farmers and MoFA staff since 2010 when the project was initiated in the district.

More than Two Hundred and Fifty (250) farmers belonging to Six (6) Farmer Based Organizations have benefitted under the project. Most of the trainings were centered on chilies and mango production for local and export markets.

Farmers have also received basic training in Globalgap certification to enable them participate in the export market.

NGOs and CBOs OPERATING IN THE DISTRICT

LocationandSize

New Juaben is the first municipality out of 21 administrative assemblies in the Eastern Region of Ghana and covering a land area of 110 square kilometres. It shares boundaries on the north-east with East Akim district, to the South-East with Akwapim North, Yilo Krobo on the East and Suhum Kraboa Coaltar District on the West.

The strategic location of New Juaben, sharing boundaries with districts that are famous in agricultural production, provides an opportunity to develop agro processing facilities to make use of raw materials from these areas.  The rural portion is rich in fertile agricultural lands and suitable for small to medium scale farming, cattle rearing and poultry.

ClimateandVegetation

The Municipality falls within the semi-deciduous rain forest climatic zone with a bi-modal rainy season of between 1200mm and 1700mm reaching its maximum during the two peak periods of May/June and September/October. The dry season is relatively short and is experienced between November and February.  Humidity and temperatures are generally high ranging between 20℃ and 32℃.  The mild temperatures have a significant bearing in making the municipality a major tourist destination.

The vegetation is characterized by tall trees with evergreen undergrowth and rich in economic trees including Chlorohorae excelsa (Odum), Ceiba pentandra (Onyina), Antaris africana (Kyenkyen), Triplochinton scleroxylon (Wawa).  These species greatly support lumbering and estate development activities. Scattered patches of secondary or broken forest are also present.  Lumbering, farming, and building activities have however contributed to the degradation of the original vegetation.

TopographyandDrainage

The underlying rock formation is mainly metamorphic which is known as the Akwapim/Togo rocks.  This is part of the Akwapim ranges that stretch across the north-eastern portion of the municipality.  The rock formation has significantly contributed to the growth of the quarry industry serving as a great potential for the production of chippings for road construction.

The municipal area is drained largely by the Densu and its tributaries, the Bompon, Obopakko and Afena which serve as the main source of drinking water. The Densu River is dammed at a location close to Koforidua where the water is treated and distributed to the municipality.  The effects of destruction of the surrounding environment  of the river basin is however impacting negatively on the sustainability of this natural resource and causing perennial water shortages particularly in the dry season.

–  Management of the Densu Basin Water Resource

The Densu River Basin is located in the south-eastern part of Ghana with a total land area of about 2,488 sq. km. and spanning 12 districts including New Juaben.  There are over 200 settlements along the basin with a population density of 150-200 persons per km. The river is one of the most exploited in Ghana and provides for domestic water supply, industrial and agricultural purposes.

For over three decades a number of management problems have emerged to negatively affect the development and use of the water resource. Key among them are the following:

• Rapid population growth along the basin;
• Inappropriate farming activities on the banks of the river and at the source;
• Use of agrochemicals in mechanized farming and harmful chemicals in fishing;
• Mining of sand and quarrying;
• Dumping of liquid and solid waste material from domestic and industrial sources into the basin;
• Poor planning schemes in the basin area;
• Indiscriminate harvesting of wood from the source to the midstream;

These problems among others have resulted in river catchment degradation and pollution.  A number of baseline studies have been conducted to collect, collate and generate information to address the current situation.  Major institutions involved in this crusade are the Environmental Protection Agency and the Water Resources Commission.  The major activities which have been carried out recently include the following:

• Formation of committees to tackle land-use management, waste management, awareness creation and education;
• Establishment of strong links with Municipal/District Assemblies, Non-governmental organizations, CBOs opinion leaders and Traditional Authorities in the implementation of action programmes;
• Instituting interventions to improve water quality of the river;
• Embarking on systematic public awareness campaign in schools, district assemblies, radio and in communities;
• Collaboration with CBOs, NGOs and community groups to plant trees in response to educational programmes;
• Construction of 560 boreholes in the basin for domestic purposes;

As part of efforts to strengthen capacity for managing the basin training needs assessment of various stakeholders have been carried out in the following areas;

• Management and supervisory roles;
• Town Planning/Land use planning;
• Integrated farming systems;
• Water and sanitation management;
• Human resource management.

Soils

The three predominant soil types found in the municipality are the Nankese-Koforidua/Nta-Ofin compound, Fete-Bediesi Complex, and Adawso-Bawjiasi/Nta-Ofin Compound Association.  These soil types are well suited for perennial tree crops and the adapted annual and semi-perennial food crops of the area.  They support the growth of cash crops such as cocoa, coffee, oil palm and citrus.  The Ofin series is particularly suitable for the cultivation of dry season vegetable crops as vegetables, sweet potatoes, sugar cane and rice. The Adawso-Bawjiase/Nta-Ofin Compound Association, which forms the smallest group of soils are characterized by grey-brown loamy humus horizons which are most economically utilized for the production of annual and semi-perennial food crops such as plantain, cocoyam and bananas.

Road Network

Almost all the existing settlements in the Municipality are reached by improved condition of tarred roads and feeder roads.  The district has a road network totaling 72km. The district’s compact size of 110sq. kms gives it a road density of 0.62 km, which is relatively adequate and suitable for efficient movement of people, goods and services. This also provides a good surface accessibility to services such as health, banking, postal services, education, agriculture extension, production and marketing centres, commodity flow and linkage with other districts.

DistributionofInfrastructure&Services

The spatial distribution of basic infrastructure and services, namely, water, electricity, educational institutions, banking and postal services, police, health facilities, markets and allied utilities are depicted in the maps below.  Availability of these facilities is one measure of poverty situation in the municipality. The maps below show that infrastructure is concentrated at the built-in or central portion whilst the major agricultural production centres at the peripheries are left with inadequate facilities.

DemographicCharacteristics

The 2000 Population and Housing Census put the population of the Municipality at 136,768 with a growth rate of 2.6% which is lower than the national average of 3.1. The projected population for 2005 is 154,531 with female population constituting 51.5% and 48.5% for males. The population density is 684 persons per square kilometre.

Koforidua, the regional and municipal capital, harbours over 65% of the entire population of the district.  The remaining 52 settlements have smaller population sizes which do not normally measure up to the population thresholds required for the provision of essential socio-economic services.

The municipality has a dependency ratio of 64.7 which implies that there are about 65 persons in the dependent age for every 100 persons in the working age group. This is compared with the regional dependency figure of 90.7.

AgeandSexComposition

The age structure of the district shows a relatively large proportion of children and a small proportion of older persons, i.e. 65+ years. The age and sex distribution of the municipal population is shown in Table 1.2 below:

AgeCompositionofPopulation

Source: Statistical Services – 2006

The proportion of the urban population in the Municipality is 88.4%.  The rural-urban split, however, is 15.7% rural and 84.3% urban.

HouseholdSizes&Characteristics

The municipality’s household size of 10.9 persons is the highest in the region.  Table 1.3 below depicts a comparison of the stock of houses and households in the municipality and the region

HouseholdsCharacteristics

Source: Statistical Services – 2006

The New Juaben Municipality also has the highest percentage of households living in room(s) in compound houses, i.e. 67.1% which is higher than the regional average of 43.1%.  The district however has 11.3% of households living in separate houses which are the least common in the region.  The ratio of male heads to female heads is 2:1.  Households in the municipality living in flats, apartments and dwelling units is 7.4%.  About 1.7% of households live in kiosks and other improvised dwelling units.

EthnicityandReligion

The Municipality is heterogenous in terms of ethnicity with a high dominance of Akans and Ga-Adangbes, Ewes and the northern tribes also constitute a large part of population. There is a fair mix of Asantes, Kwahus and Akims with a sizeable number of Akwapims.  The municipality on the other hand is predominantly Christian, constituting a population of 82.8%, Moslems 6.1% and traditional believers 2.4%. These religious inclinations have had a major influence on the dissemination of information and constitute a significant force in mobilizing the people towards developmental activities.

EmploymentStatus

The Municipality has a high proportion of self-employed individual businesses.  The percentage of workers in the employee category is 27.9% which is the highest in the region.  A huge proportion of the employed population are engaged in the public service, industrial, service and education sectors.  About 29.3% of workers are engaged in commerce whiles 28.6% are in production, transport and equipment operation.

DistrictEconomy

The key sectors of the municipal economy are industrial manufacturing and processing which constitutes about 26.7%, the service sector 39.9%, agriculture 26.1% and 7.3% engaged in other socio-economic activities.  Whilst majority of industrial establishments are found in the central business area of the municipality, agricultural production is carried out at the small settlements and the peri-urban locations of the district.

Agriculture

It is estimated that 26.1% of the economically active population is engaged in the agricultural sector.  These are catered for by thirty-four (31) agriculture extension officers who live among the farming communities at Suhyen, Akwadum, Oyoko, Jumapo, Asikasu, Korle-Nkwanta, Nyamekrom, Asokore and Effiduase.  The ratio of Extension Officers to farmers is 1:800. The adoption of scientific farm practices is high among literate farmers and has resulted in increased yield per acre.

Nyakoma, Suhyen and Bonya are noted for the production of maize while cassava is cultivated in large quantities at Nyamekrom, Nyakoma and Akwadum.  Plantain farming is concentrated in Jumapo, Asikasu and Akwadum. Among the major produce are cassava, maize, cocoyam, plantain, vegetables, oil palm, cocoa, kola and citrus. A recent Agricultural Sample Survey of 10,775 farmers showed the following age ranges engaged in Agriculture.

AgeGroupEngagementinAgriculture

Source: MOFA, 2006

Table  shows that farming is still not attractive to the youth who form the majority of the economically active population. Farm sizes in the municipality are relatively small ranging between 1 and 2 hectares.  The land tenure systems currently in operation are the Owner Occupancy and Shared Tenancy (where the land owner leases the land to the farmer and the proceeds shared between them).

Crop production is largely rain fed and traditional techniques and subsistence production still dominate.  About 95% of farmers use cutlasses, hoes, axes and mattocks. Spraying machines and pruners are also increasingly used.  Bush fallowing, slash and burn are still practised.

Existing storage facilities are mostly traditional – barns, roof storage, and narrow cribs.  Processing as a means of conserving bumper output is very limited.  Urban-based middlemen within and outside the municipality undertake marketing of the bulk of farm produce. Most of the farmers sell their produce at the nearest local markets to these middlemen who cart them to the large urban market centres for re-sale where known market Queens also monopolize the retail trade.

Livestock production is also predominant in the municipality.  Animals mostly reared are sheep, goats, cattle, pigs, poultry and snails.  Poultry production is fast growing with over 50,000 birds produced annually.

AgriculturalFacilities

Veterinary Clinic                     – Ministry of Food and Agriculture Veterinary Services

Abattoir                                   – New Juaben Municipal Assembly

Feedmill                                  – Privately owned poultry feed processing plant

RTTC/ITTU                            – Producers of agro-processing machines and        spare parts (GRATIS foundation)

Palm-oil/Palm                          – Owned by individuals and FBOs

Kernel Processing

Agriculture input                     – 14 privately owned agrochemical and fertilizer

Outlets                                      dealers

Markets                                   – 5 major markets and community ones

Agriculture information          – An agriculture office stocked with reference

And E-commerce Centre        books, pamphlets, folders, flyers etc.

RecentTrendsofproductionandyieldofmajorcommodities

SpecialAgriculturalProjects

CadburyCocoaPartnership:SecureLivelihoodsProject:

This is a project initiated by Cadbury, now known as Kraft Foods. It has four components or thematic areas, namely:

1. i.            Sustainable Livelihoods from cocoa
2. ii.            Sustainable Livelihoods from other sources (Complementary/ Alternative Livelihoods)
3. iii.            Community- centred Development, and
4. iv.            Institutional Engagement.

The project also tackles crosscutting issues such as gender, environment, and worst forms of child labour.

Sericulture:

A group of young people started the production of silk from silk worms that feed on mulberry leaves. The farms are located at the slopes of Oboutabiri Mountain. These young people need to be encouraged with funds. If enough funds are secured, the project can become an agro tourism centre to be probably called “The Hanging Garden of Koforidua”

Geographical Location and Size

The Kwahu West Municipal is one of the newly created Municipalities in the Eastern Region of Ghana and lies between latitudes 6°30° North, and 7° North and longitudes 0° 30° West and 1° West of the equator. The Municipal capital, Nkawkaw, is located about 165 kilometers North–West of Accra.

The Municipal is bounded to the north by the Kwahu South District, to the West by Asante-Akim South District. It is bounded on the East, by the Fanteakwa District and to the south by Birim North and Atiwa Districts. It has a total land area of 414km².

Demographic characteristics

Population Growth

The 2000 National Population and Housing Census put the Municipal’s population at 201,542 with population growth rate of about 4%. The growth of the population is mainly due to the influence of migration of people to the Municipal’s capital. The structure of the population is made up of about 49% males and 51% female with an average household size of 4.6.

There are about 220 settlements in the Municipality with Nkawkaw, a well known commercial town as the capital.

The population is concentrated mainly in the municipal capital (about 80,000 people) and located along the urban and peri-urban areas of the municipality particularly along the Accra –Kumasi High way.

Rural-UrbanSplit

According to the 1984 National Population Census, only 21.9 percent of the population lived in urban areas and the rest (78.1%) lived in rural areas.  Currently, 36.2 per cent of the population lives in urban areas whilst 61.8 % live in rural areas.

The Municipality can therefore be described as being predominantly rural.

(

dependency ratio is 1:0:8. The economic dependency ratio of 1:0:8 as obtained from field investigations mean that an employee is close to taking care of another person who is unemployed.

A high dependency ratio puts a lot of pressure on the employed in the light of high per capita consumption expenditure and rather low per capita income as well as its distribution. This implies low savings which could be channeled for investment to employ more people to reduce the burden.

Occupational Distribution

The predominant occupation in the Municipality is subsistence agriculture.

Agriculture employs about 52.5% of the total labour force.

PHYSICALANDNATURALENVIRONMENT

Climate

The Municipality lies within the wet-semi equatorial region. As such, it experiences a double maxima rainfall pattern with average monthly relative humidity ranging between 75% and 80% during the two rainy seasons with average annual rainfall of between 1,700mm and 2,000mm

Mean monthly temperature values as high as 30^oC are often recorded between the months of March and April but declines to 26^oC in August.

The Municipality comes under the influence of two air masses namely the tropical maritime air mass (MT) and the tropical continental (CT) air mass. The tropical maritime air mass hits the Municipality twice a year thereby causing the two rainy seasons. The two occasions are May to August and then September to October. Between the months of November and March, the Municipality is affected by the tropical continental air mass making the area warm and dry.

VegetationandForestReserves

The Kwahu West Municipality lies within the semi-deciduous forest zone, which belongs to the Antiaris – Chlorophora association. The vegetation is dense and consists of major economic trees such as Odum, Wawa, Mahogany Ciderella, Ceiba petandra, Sapele etc.

The forest is made up of three layers with most of the trees in the upper and middle layers exhibiting deciduous characteristics during the dry season, which starts in November and ends in March. Unfortunately, few of the virgin forests in the Municipality remain today due to the negative effects of human activities such as timber extraction, farming and bushfires. Most virgin forest lands have been replaced by other vegetation or secondary forest, which is easily distinguished from the climatic climax vegetation.

There are three forest reserves in the Municipality with the southern scarp forest reserve, which covers an area of 15,460 hectares being the largest. Others include: the Kade Bepo, and Nkawanda.

The total land area is 171.56km^2.

Soils and Agricultural Land use

Soils in the Municipality belong to a category called Forest Ochrosols and consist of clay loamy soils.  These are sub-divided into various groups comprising, fine sand loams, clay loams, Recreational loams, non-gravel sandy clay loams, sandy loams and iron pan soils.These soils possess the good chemical properties of clay and appreciable amounts of humus making them generally fertile and a great potential for cash and food crop production.  Each of these soils has its peculiar characteristics and the type of crops as shown in Table 1.2. .

Soil Characteristics

Source: Soil Research Institute, Kwadaso.

WaterResources

The Kwahu West Municipality has very rich groundwater resources and rivers. These could be developed for irrigation purposes, particularly in the rural communities, to boost agriculture in the Municipality.

Notably among these rivers are Asuboni, Pra and Akaworonsu

Agricultural Sector

Agriculture is the major economic activity in the Kwahu West Municipality and employs 60% of the labour force. A baseline survey revealed that generally large-scale farming activities are limited in the Municipality.  Agriculture in the Municipality is on subsistence level, and very few farmers engage in large plantation farming.  Production situation in the Municipality is shown in the table below:-

Agricultural Production Situation In The Municipality

CROPS SECTOR

Maize

The Municipality has potential in maize production. The crop is cultivated throughout the Municipality. It is estimated that about 4,000 hectares of maize are cultivated annually producing about 6,000 mt.

However, the farmlands are of small holdings varying between 0.4 and 0.8ha.

Though storage of maize poses a challenge for a meaningful productivity, Farmers are able to produce enough for sale.

Marketing of the produce does not pose a big problem in the Municipality except when there is production glut in the country where surpluses from other areas like Techiman, Nkoranza and Afram plains tend to flood the market.

About 60% of annual production is consumed locally.

Cassava

The crop is also produced extensively in the Municipality. It is intercropped with maize.

Most of the soils in the Municipality are suitable for the cultivation of cassava hence the high production yields.

Unfortunately, almost all the varieties produced are of the traditional types.

However, efforts have been made to introduce the industrial types like bankyehemaa, Abasafitaa etc. from RTIMP project for the purposes of setting up small-scale agro-processing units.

The crop farm sizes range between 0.4 and 0.8ha.

Average production is about 16 mt/ha and the estimated annual cultivable Hectareage is 1,200.

Plantain

Plantain one of the food crops is found everywhere in the Municipality even at backyards of most houses in the Municipality. Though the soils in the Municipality are suitable for the cultivation of the crop on large scale basis, cultivation of the crop is on subsistence basis of small holdings between 0.2 and 0.4ha.

Average production is about 10.8Mt/ha and annual production level of about 26,000Mt.

Cocoyam

The Municipality produces about  8,000 Mt of the crop annually. The crop is an intercrop in cocoa and plantain farms. It is produced extensively on steep slopes in the Municipality. Average annual production is 7Mt/ha.

Oil palm

Oil palm is one of the potential crops in the Municipality. It has the potential of becoming an industrial crop in the Municipality, if the PSI on oil palm project in the Municipality is fully implemented.

The palm fruits are processed into palm oil and palm kernel oil through the local processing methods. The products are sold in the local markets and also outside the Municipality’s markets.

Citrus

Citrus is also fast gaining recognition in the Municipality. Most farmers in the Municipality took advantage of the ADRA Agroforestry Programme and therefore own some citrus farms. Farm sizes range between 0.4 and 0.8 ha for small scale farmers and 4ha and 14 ha for large scale farmers.

Marketing of the crop used not to be a problem at all in the Municipality but for some three years now (2007-2010), marketing of the produce has reduced drastically. Actually, the citrus crop used to provide substantial revenue to those farmers who own them.

Cocoa

Cocoa, which is an exportable crop and a major foreign exchange earner for the country, is widely produced in the Municipality.  The Municipality used to be a cocoa-producing area, but has lost that glory due to the intensive bush fire, which occurred in 1983 and upsurge of swollen shoot disease in the Municipality, but for the Mass cocoa spraying exercise currently being carried, the Municipality has seen a tremendous increase in the tonnage of cocoa produced. About 8,000 hectares of cocoa farms are sprayed annually against capsid and black pod diseases resulting in significant increase in production.

The average farm size of the crop is 0.8 hectares.  Marketing of the product is done mainly through the Ghana Cocoa Marketing Company of COCOBOD and on a limited scale through private organizations such as OLAM, KUAPA etc.

Cola

Cola is also one of the plantation crops that give revenue to most farmers. The crop is either an intercrop in cocoa farms or sole crop.

Cola business in Kwahu West is very lucrative. About 90% of the cola produced in the Municipality is exported to Nigeria.

Two (2) indigenous varieties are cultivated in the district; the white and the red varieties. Farmers who expressed interest in establishing new plantations were advised to obtain exotic seedlings from CRIG at Tafo

The estimated established plantations are about 2,200ha. with annual exportable production of 1,000Mt.

Ginger

Ginger is fast establishing itself as the non-traditional crop in the district. Currently, the crop is being produced on a very small scale due to its initial high capital investment. Ginger production, if promoted in the Municipality could be one of the topmost crops that can reduce rural poverty among farmers in the Municipality.

A social survey conducted indicated that a farmer is able to harvest 300% of the quantity of the crop cultivated. This translates into 200% profit whilst holding on to the initial quantity of crop cultivated.

Ginger can be stored for a very long time; for over 6 months to 1 year when harvested or can be left to grow irrespective of the climatic conditions for a very long time when market prices are not favourable.

An initial capital of about GH¢2,400 is required to cultivate one (1) hectare of the crop. Annual crop production in the Municipality is 4,000Mt.

MAJOR FOOD/TREE CROPS AND THEIR AREAS OF PRODUCTION

Crop Production

LIVESTOCK SECTOR

Cattle

Cattle rearing are of small holdings in the Municipality due to the forest vegetation.

Currently, there are about 250-300 cattle in the Municipality Most of the cattle slaughtered at the Municipality’s abattoir are from the North or Afram plains.

Sheep and Goats

There are about 60,000 small ruminants in the Municipality

Livestock is mainly reared on free range system. There are no elaborate housing for these animals and no proper breeding methods for those animals. As a result of that the Animal Production Unit of MoFA in collaboration with the Municipal Development Unit has established demonstration of different livestock housing units for study and adoption by livestock farmers in the municipality

Animal production growth rate is about 25%.

Pig production

Estimated number of 5,000 pigs is reared annually in the Municipality. Pig production is carried out by individual farmers on subsistence level. There are no large commercial pig farmers in the Municipality.

Pork produced is consumed locally.

Grasscutter production

Grasscutter production is gaining acceptance by many farmers in the Municipality.

Though the initial capital investment is relatively high, farmers are seriously involved in Grasscutter rearing. There is in place a Grasscutter Association in the Municipality with about 150 members.

It is estimated that about 550 Grasscutters are being reared in the Municipality. The number is expected to go up by about 10% annually.

Poultry production

Poultry is also one of the leading agricultural ventures in the Municipality. There are about 25 commercial poultry houses.

Marketing of poultry and poultry products are done locally.

There is more room for improvement and expansion in the poultry industry in the Municipality. The Agricultural Development Unit also embarked on rural poultry improvement programme to, as it were, improve upon the size and genetic make up of the domestic poultry by producing about 3000 exotic cockerels annually for sale to farmers to enhance cross breeding. It plans to go into sustainable cockerel production to improve the rural/domestic poultry.

MAJOR LIVESTOCK AND COMMERCIAL POULTRY AND

THEIR AREAS OF PRODUCTION

Livestock Production

OTHER SECTORS

Women in Agriculture Development (WIAD)

Women play vital role in agricultural development particularly in areas of processing, cultivation and weed control. The WIAD unit has therefore put a lot of programmes in place to empower the women in agriculture in the Kwahu West Municipality to help accelerate agricultural growth. Notably among them are:

• Home Garden Establishment
• Processing and Preservation of Agricultural Produce
• Promotion of local foods
• Nutrition
• Home management
• HIV/AIDS awareness

Women in Agriculture need support in areas of Agribusiness and processing to enhance agricultural development in the Municipality.

IRRIGATION

Another challenge to accelerated agricultural development in the country is lack of irrigation facilities.

Kwahu West has a lot of lowland areas that can support small–scale irrigation. These lands when developed under small scale irrigation systems can provide all year round food and vegetables for local consumption at cheaper prices.

The surpluses can also be sold outside the Municipality to earn additional revenue for the farmers. This development can lead to rural poverty reduction. It could also encourage the farmers to produce more as well as remove the risk of crop failure, due to lack of rains, should a farmer borrow from a financial institution to conduct farming.

AQUACULTURE

The Municipality is endowed with lowland areas which could be utilized for aquaculture development. There are a lot of farmers who have expressed interest in aquaculture. However, the Municipality lacks competent staff to handle this discipline. In spite of this handicap, there is close collaboration between the aquaculture group in the municipality and the Regional fisheries unit.

There are few commercial and recreational fish ponds in the Municipality.

These ponds are located at Nkawanda No 1, Nkawkaw, Amanfrom, Old jejeti and Adansua.

Fish from the ponds are sold to the general public or the commercial cold stores. A commercial fish pond farmer produces fingerlings and mature fish for sale to farmers and the general public respectively.

The Municipality though has enormous potential in aquaculture; few farmers are engaged in this technology.

STORAGE

One of the challenges that face agriculture in the Municipality is adequate storage facilities for the farmers, particularly maize farmers.  These farmers produce about 6,000 mt. of maize annually but cannot store them when prices are not favourable. Those who attempt to store them lose about 30 -40 % of their harvested maize through improper storage facilities. The Municipality therefore requires financial and material support to train and also assist the farmers to construct simple but durable storage facilities for their produce.

RURAL ROAD NETWORK

Road is the only means of transport in the Municipality. This implies that, the overall improvement of the rural road network, maintenance and rehabilitation will facilitate and lower transportation cost of foodstuffs and farm inputs to and from the urban towns. Good rural road network will integrate the rural economy with the urban economy to reduce rural poverty.

However, rural road networks in the Kwahu West Municipality is so poor that transportation cost on goods and services to and from the rural areas is very high and as such tend to affect the prices of goods and services in the market centres.

Financing Agriculture

Financing of Agricultural holdings in the Municipality are to large extent from the farmers own resources. About 90% of the farmers in the Municipality finance their own farms. This makes effective and efficient agriculture in the Municipality very cumbersome to accomplish. About 10% Agricultural financing in the Municipality is by the banks and government. Farmers are unable to access credit to undertake meaningful farming due to high interest rates, lack of collateral and short term pay back period of the loans.

NGOs

In the quest to address the challenges in Agricultural Development in the Kwahu West Municipality, a number of Non–governmental Organization are also assisting farmers in the Municipality. Notably among these are ADRA, HUNGER PROJECT and WORLD VISION.

ADRA

ADRA assisted farmers to undertake agro-forestry plantations in the form of citrus and also assisted communities with boreholes, toilets and Moringa seedlings.

Hunger Project

This NGO also assisted farmers with epicenters where farmers were given technical advice and some level of training to enhance their farming.

World Vision

World Vision also assisted a lot of farmers to embark on Agro- forestry projects and also to improve upon the micronutrient intake by providing fruit crop seedlings, rabbits, goats and chicken to the rural farmers in the Municipality. However, project came to an end in 2007 but the NGO is still operating in the municipality but ADRA is no more.

These NGOs in one way or the other involved the agricultural staff of MoFA, MADU Kwahu West to help achieve their objectives. MADU, Kwahu West therefore welcomes any other NGO that would like to work with the Directorate and the Municipal Assembly to address the aforementioned challenges to help accelerate agricultural Development.

EXTENSION DELIVERY SERVICES

The objective of the Municipal Agricultural Development unit (MADU), Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Kwahu West, is to assist farmers with technological innovations through trainings and demonstrations to achieve optimal agricultural development in the Municipality.

MADU since its inception in 2005 has embarked on some programmes and projects to achieve the set agricultural objectives. Notably among these are:

Food and Agricultural Budgetary Support (FABS) 2006

Under this programme, DADU provided GH¢20,000 cash to assist 10 Grasscutter farmers groups and 9 individual poultry farmers to rear grasscutters and guinea fowl respectively.  The FABS fund also provided additional GH¢1,500 to 3 farmers to construct three (3) maize cribs for the storage of maize.

Furthermore, the Fund assisted three (3) Oilpalm processing groups to acquire processing equipment worth GH¢20,500.

FBO Fund

The FBO Fund also in 2004, spanning 2005, released an amount of about

GH17, 000 to three (3) farmer groups located at Nkawanda 1, Asuoso Jejeti and Kwahu Jejeti to purchase Agro –processing equipment.

Food and Agricultural Support Programme (maize project, 2005-2007)

MoFA, Kwahu West under this Programme, supported about 279 individual farmers and 16 farmer groups with farm inputs to undertake maize production.

BLOCK FARMING (2010)

MAIZE

Size: 42 hectares in 3 operational areas namely

Kofi Dede -18 hectares        Asuboni Rails- 14

Awenade -10 hectares

RICE

Size: 32 hectares at Asuboni Rails

Work on the Block farming project is progressing steadily.

The Directorate in its quest to render extension services to the farmers has mapped out the Municipality into 15 operational areas to ease monitoring of field staff In its day to day extension delivery, MoFA, Kwahu West embarks on some of the following programmes annually to technically assist its farmers not only to increase agricultural production but also improve upon their standards of living.

Interventions

The Kwahu West Municipal Agricultural Development unit (MADU) and the Ministry of Food and Agriculture in collaboration with the Kwahu West Municipality Assembly have put in place interventions to address the above challenges in order to enhance agricultural development in the Municipality

However, their efforts will require the collaboration of other stakeholders to address these challenges.

MoFA, Kwahu West Municipality therefore welcomes stakeholders who are willing to assist in this direction.

Geographical Location and Size

The Kwahu West Municipal is one of the newly created Municipalities in the Eastern Region of Ghana and lies between latitudes 6°30° North, and 7° North and longitudes 0° 30° West and 1° West of the equator. The Municipal capital, Nkawkaw, is located about 165 kilometers North–West of Accra.

The Municipal is bounded to the north by the Kwahu South District, to the West by Asante-Akim South District. It is bounded on the East, by the Fanteakwa District and to the south by Birim North and Atiwa Districts. It has a total land area of 414km².

Demographic characteristics

Population Growth

The 2000 National Population and Housing Census put the Municipal’s population at 201,542 with population growth rate of about 4%. The growth of the population is mainly due to the influence of migration of people to the Municipal’s capital. The structure of the population is made up of about 49% males and 51% female with an average household size of 4.6.

There are about 220 settlements in the Municipality with Nkawkaw, a well known commercial town as the capital.

The population is concentrated mainly in the municipal capital (about 80,000 people) and located along the urban and peri-urban areas of the municipality particularly along the Accra –Kumasi High way.

Rural-UrbanSplit

According to the 1984 National Population Census, only 21.9 percent of the population lived in urban areas and the rest (78.1%) lived in rural areas.  Currently, 36.2 per cent of the population lives in urban areas whilst 61.8 % live in rural areas.

The Municipality can therefore be described as being predominantly rural.

(

dependency ratio is 1:0:8. The economic dependency ratio of 1:0:8 as obtained from field investigations mean that an employee is close to taking care of another person who is unemployed.

A high dependency ratio puts a lot of pressure on the employed in the light of high per capita consumption expenditure and rather low per capita income as well as its distribution. This implies low savings which could be channeled for investment to employ more people to reduce the burden.

Occupational Distribution

The predominant occupation in the Municipality is subsistence agriculture.

Agriculture employs about 52.5% of the total labour force.

PHYSICALANDNATURALENVIRONMENT

Climate

The Municipality lies within the wet-semi equatorial region. As such, it experiences a double maxima rainfall pattern with average monthly relative humidity ranging between 75% and 80% during the two rainy seasons with average annual rainfall of between 1,700mm and 2,000mm

Mean monthly temperature values as high as 30^oC are often recorded between the months of March and April but declines to 26^oC in August.

The Municipality comes under the influence of two air masses namely the tropical maritime air mass (MT) and the tropical continental (CT) air mass. The tropical maritime air mass hits the Municipality twice a year thereby causing the two rainy seasons. The two occasions are May to August and then September to October. Between the months of November and March, the Municipality is affected by the tropical continental air mass making the area warm and dry.

VegetationandForestReserves

The Kwahu West Municipality lies within the semi-deciduous forest zone, which belongs to the Antiaris – Chlorophora association. The vegetation is dense and consists of major economic trees such as Odum, Wawa, Mahogany Ciderella, Ceiba petandra, Sapele etc.

The forest is made up of three layers with most of the trees in the upper and middle layers exhibiting deciduous characteristics during the dry season, which starts in November and ends in March. Unfortunately, few of the virgin forests in the Municipality remain today due to the negative effects of human activities such as timber extraction, farming and bushfires. Most virgin forest lands have been replaced by other vegetation or secondary forest, which is easily distinguished from the climatic climax vegetation.

There are three forest reserves in the Municipality with the southern scarp forest reserve, which covers an area of 15,460 hectares being the largest. Others include: the Kade Bepo, and Nkawanda.

The total land area is 171.56km^2.

Soils and Agricultural Land use

Soils in the Municipality belong to a category called Forest Ochrosols and consist of clay loamy soils.  These are sub-divided into various groups comprising, fine sand loams, clay loams, Recreational loams, non-gravel sandy clay loams, sandy loams and iron pan soils.These soils possess the good chemical properties of clay and appreciable amounts of humus making them generally fertile and a great potential for cash and food crop production.  Each of these soils has its peculiar characteristics and the type of crops as shown in Table 1.2. .

Soil Characteristics

Source: Soil Research Institute, Kwadaso.

WaterResources

The Kwahu West Municipality has very rich groundwater resources and rivers. These could be developed for irrigation purposes, particularly in the rural communities, to boost agriculture in the Municipality.

Notably among these rivers are Asuboni, Pra and Akaworonsu

Agricultural Sector

Agriculture is the major economic activity in the Kwahu West Municipality and employs 60% of the labour force. A baseline survey revealed that generally large-scale farming activities are limited in the Municipality.  Agriculture in the Municipality is on subsistence level, and very few farmers engage in large plantation farming.  Production situation in the Municipality is shown in the table below:-

Agricultural Production Situation In The Municipality

CROPS SECTOR

Maize

The Municipality has potential in maize production. The crop is cultivated throughout the Municipality. It is estimated that about 4,000 hectares of maize are cultivated annually producing about 6,000 mt.

However, the farmlands are of small holdings varying between 0.4 and 0.8ha.

Though storage of maize poses a challenge for a meaningful productivity, Farmers are able to produce enough for sale.

Marketing of the produce does not pose a big problem in the Municipality except when there is production glut in the country where surpluses from other areas like Techiman, Nkoranza and Afram plains tend to flood the market.

About 60% of annual production is consumed locally.

Cassava

The crop is also produced extensively in the Municipality. It is intercropped with maize.

Most of the soils in the Municipality are suitable for the cultivation of cassava hence the high production yields.

Unfortunately, almost all the varieties produced are of the traditional types.

However, efforts have been made to introduce the industrial types like bankyehemaa, Abasafitaa etc. from RTIMP project for the purposes of setting up small-scale agro-processing units.

The crop farm sizes range between 0.4 and 0.8ha.

Average production is about 16 mt/ha and the estimated annual cultivable Hectareage is 1,200.

Plantain

Plantain one of the food crops is found everywhere in the Municipality even at backyards of most houses in the Municipality. Though the soils in the Municipality are suitable for the cultivation of the crop on large scale basis, cultivation of the crop is on subsistence basis of small holdings between 0.2 and 0.4ha.

Average production is about 10.8Mt/ha and annual production level of about 26,000Mt.

Cocoyam

The Municipality produces about  8,000 Mt of the crop annually. The crop is an intercrop in cocoa and plantain farms. It is produced extensively on steep slopes in the Municipality. Average annual production is 7Mt/ha.

Oil palm

Oil palm is one of the potential crops in the Municipality. It has the potential of becoming an industrial crop in the Municipality, if the PSI on oil palm project in the Municipality is fully implemented.

The palm fruits are processed into palm oil and palm kernel oil through the local processing methods. The products are sold in the local markets and also outside the Municipality’s markets.

Citrus

Citrus is also fast gaining recognition in the Municipality. Most farmers in the Municipality took advantage of the ADRA Agroforestry Programme and therefore own some citrus farms. Farm sizes range between 0.4 and 0.8 ha for small scale farmers and 4ha and 14 ha for large scale farmers.

Marketing of the crop used not to be a problem at all in the Municipality but for some three years now (2007-2010), marketing of the produce has reduced drastically. Actually, the citrus crop used to provide substantial revenue to those farmers who own them.

Cocoa

Cocoa, which is an exportable crop and a major foreign exchange earner for the country, is widely produced in the Municipality.  The Municipality used to be a cocoa-producing area, but has lost that glory due to the intensive bush fire, which occurred in 1983 and upsurge of swollen shoot disease in the Municipality, but for the Mass cocoa spraying exercise currently being carried, the Municipality has seen a tremendous increase in the tonnage of cocoa produced. About 8,000 hectares of cocoa farms are sprayed annually against capsid and black pod diseases resulting in significant increase in production.

The average farm size of the crop is 0.8 hectares.  Marketing of the product is done mainly through the Ghana Cocoa Marketing Company of COCOBOD and on a limited scale through private organizations such as OLAM, KUAPA etc.

Cola

Cola is also one of the plantation crops that give revenue to most farmers. The crop is either an intercrop in cocoa farms or sole crop.

Cola business in Kwahu West is very lucrative. About 90% of the cola produced in the Municipality is exported to Nigeria.

Two (2) indigenous varieties are cultivated in the district; the white and the red varieties. Farmers who expressed interest in establishing new plantations were advised to obtain exotic seedlings from CRIG at Tafo

The estimated established plantations are about 2,200ha. with annual exportable production of 1,000Mt.

Ginger

Ginger is fast establishing itself as the non-traditional crop in the district. Currently, the crop is being produced on a very small scale due to its initial high capital investment. Ginger production, if promoted in the Municipality could be one of the topmost crops that can reduce rural poverty among farmers in the Municipality.

A social survey conducted indicated that a farmer is able to harvest 300% of the quantity of the crop cultivated. This translates into 200% profit whilst holding on to the initial quantity of crop cultivated.

Ginger can be stored for a very long time; for over 6 months to 1 year when harvested or can be left to grow irrespective of the climatic conditions for a very long time when market prices are not favourable.

An initial capital of about GH¢2,400 is required to cultivate one (1) hectare of the crop. Annual crop production in the Municipality is 4,000Mt.

MAJOR FOOD/TREE CROPS AND THEIR AREAS OF PRODUCTION

Crop Production

LIVESTOCK SECTOR

Cattle

Cattle rearing are of small holdings in the Municipality due to the forest vegetation.

Currently, there are about 250-300 cattle in the Municipality Most of the cattle slaughtered at the Municipality’s abattoir are from the North or Afram plains.

Sheep and Goats

There are about 60,000 small ruminants in the Municipality

Livestock is mainly reared on free range system. There are no elaborate housing for these animals and no proper breeding methods for those animals. As a result of that the Animal Production Unit of MoFA in collaboration with the Municipal Development Unit has established demonstration of different livestock housing units for study and adoption by livestock farmers in the municipality

Animal production growth rate is about 25%.

Pig production

Estimated number of 5,000 pigs is reared annually in the Municipality. Pig production is carried out by individual farmers on subsistence level. There are no large commercial pig farmers in the Municipality.

Pork produced is consumed locally.

Grasscutter production

Grasscutter production is gaining acceptance by many farmers in the Municipality.

Though the initial capital investment is relatively high, farmers are seriously involved in Grasscutter rearing. There is in place a Grasscutter Association in the Municipality with about 150 members.

It is estimated that about 550 Grasscutters are being reared in the Municipality. The number is expected to go up by about 10% annually.

Poultry production

Poultry is also one of the leading agricultural ventures in the Municipality. There are about 25 commercial poultry houses.

Marketing of poultry and poultry products are done locally.

There is more room for improvement and expansion in the poultry industry in the Municipality. The Agricultural Development Unit also embarked on rural poultry improvement programme to, as it were, improve upon the size and genetic make up of the domestic poultry by producing about 3000 exotic cockerels annually for sale to farmers to enhance cross breeding. It plans to go into sustainable cockerel production to improve the rural/domestic poultry.

MAJOR LIVESTOCK AND COMMERCIAL POULTRY AND

THEIR AREAS OF PRODUCTION

Livestock Production

OTHER SECTORS

Women in Agriculture Development (WIAD)

Women play vital role in agricultural development particularly in areas of processing, cultivation and weed control. The WIAD unit has therefore put a lot of programmes in place to empower the women in agriculture in the Kwahu West Municipality to help accelerate agricultural growth. Notably among them are:

• Home Garden Establishment
• Processing and Preservation of Agricultural Produce
• Promotion of local foods
• Nutrition
• Home management
• HIV/AIDS awareness

Women in Agriculture need support in areas of Agribusiness and processing to enhance agricultural development in the Municipality.

IRRIGATION

Another challenge to accelerated agricultural development in the country is lack of irrigation facilities.

Kwahu West has a lot of lowland areas that can support small–scale irrigation. These lands when developed under small scale irrigation systems can provide all year round food and vegetables for local consumption at cheaper prices.

The surpluses can also be sold outside the Municipality to earn additional revenue for the farmers. This development can lead to rural poverty reduction. It could also encourage the farmers to produce more as well as remove the risk of crop failure, due to lack of rains, should a farmer borrow from a financial institution to conduct farming.

AQUACULTURE

The Municipality is endowed with lowland areas which could be utilized for aquaculture development. There are a lot of farmers who have expressed interest in aquaculture. However, the Municipality lacks competent staff to handle this discipline. In spite of this handicap, there is close collaboration between the aquaculture group in the municipality and the Regional fisheries unit.

There are few commercial and recreational fish ponds in the Municipality.

These ponds are located at Nkawanda No 1, Nkawkaw, Amanfrom, Old jejeti and Adansua.

Fish from the ponds are sold to the general public or the commercial cold stores. A commercial fish pond farmer produces fingerlings and mature fish for sale to farmers and the general public respectively.

The Municipality though has enormous potential in aquaculture; few farmers are engaged in this technology.

STORAGE

One of the challenges that face agriculture in the Municipality is adequate storage facilities for the farmers, particularly maize farmers.  These farmers produce about 6,000 mt. of maize annually but cannot store them when prices are not favourable. Those who attempt to store them lose about 30 -40 % of their harvested maize through improper storage facilities. The Municipality therefore requires financial and material support to train and also assist the farmers to construct simple but durable storage facilities for their produce.

RURAL ROAD NETWORK

Road is the only means of transport in the Municipality. This implies that, the overall improvement of the rural road network, maintenance and rehabilitation will facilitate and lower transportation cost of foodstuffs and farm inputs to and from the urban towns. Good rural road network will integrate the rural economy with the urban economy to reduce rural poverty.

However, rural road networks in the Kwahu West Municipality is so poor that transportation cost on goods and services to and from the rural areas is very high and as such tend to affect the prices of goods and services in the market centres.

Financing Agriculture

Financing of Agricultural holdings in the Municipality are to large extent from the farmers own resources. About 90% of the farmers in the Municipality finance their own farms. This makes effective and efficient agriculture in the Municipality very cumbersome to accomplish. About 10% Agricultural financing in the Municipality is by the banks and government. Farmers are unable to access credit to undertake meaningful farming due to high interest rates, lack of collateral and short term pay back period of the loans.

NGOs

In the quest to address the challenges in Agricultural Development in the Kwahu West Municipality, a number of Non–governmental Organization are also assisting farmers in the Municipality. Notably among these are ADRA, HUNGER PROJECT and WORLD VISION.

ADRA

ADRA assisted farmers to undertake agro-forestry plantations in the form of citrus and also assisted communities with boreholes, toilets and Moringa seedlings.

Hunger Project

This NGO also assisted farmers with epicenters where farmers were given technical advice and some level of training to enhance their farming.

World Vision

World Vision also assisted a lot of farmers to embark on Agro- forestry projects and also to improve upon the micronutrient intake by providing fruit crop seedlings, rabbits, goats and chicken to the rural farmers in the Municipality. However, project came to an end in 2007 but the NGO is still operating in the municipality but ADRA is no more.

These NGOs in one way or the other involved the agricultural staff of MoFA, MADU Kwahu West to help achieve their objectives. MADU, Kwahu West therefore welcomes any other NGO that would like to work with the Directorate and the Municipal Assembly to address the aforementioned challenges to help accelerate agricultural Development.

EXTENSION DELIVERY SERVICES

The objective of the Municipal Agricultural Development unit (MADU), Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Kwahu West, is to assist farmers with technological innovations through trainings and demonstrations to achieve optimal agricultural development in the Municipality.

MADU since its inception in 2005 has embarked on some programmes and projects to achieve the set agricultural objectives. Notably among these are:

Food and Agricultural Budgetary Support (FABS) 2006

Under this programme, DADU provided GH¢20,000 cash to assist 10 Grasscutter farmers groups and 9 individual poultry farmers to rear grasscutters and guinea fowl respectively.  The FABS fund also provided additional GH¢1,500 to 3 farmers to construct three (3) maize cribs for the storage of maize.

Furthermore, the Fund assisted three (3) Oilpalm processing groups to acquire processing equipment worth GH¢20,500.

FBO Fund

The FBO Fund also in 2004, spanning 2005, released an amount of about

GH17, 000 to three (3) farmer groups located at Nkawanda 1, Asuoso Jejeti and Kwahu Jejeti to purchase Agro –processing equipment.

Food and Agricultural Support Programme (maize project, 2005-2007)

MoFA, Kwahu West under this Programme, supported about 279 individual farmers and 16 farmer groups with farm inputs to undertake maize production.

BLOCK FARMING (2010)

MAIZE

Size: 42 hectares in 3 operational areas namely

Kofi Dede -18 hectares        Asuboni Rails- 14

Awenade -10 hectares

RICE

Size: 32 hectares at Asuboni Rails

Work on the Block farming project is progressing steadily.

The Directorate in its quest to render extension services to the farmers has mapped out the Municipality into 15 operational areas to ease monitoring of field staff In its day to day extension delivery, MoFA, Kwahu West embarks on some of the following programmes annually to technically assist its farmers not only to increase agricultural production but also improve upon their standards of living.

Interventions

The Kwahu West Municipal Agricultural Development unit (MADU) and the Ministry of Food and Agriculture in collaboration with the Kwahu West Municipality Assembly have put in place interventions to address the above challenges in order to enhance agricultural development in the Municipality

However, their efforts will require the collaboration of other stakeholders to address these challenges.

MoFA, Kwahu West Municipality therefore welcomes stakeholders who are willing to assist in this direction.