Demographics, Weather, Land use, Investments
Population
There are about 96,000 (yet to be determined in 2010 census) predominantly urban and middle class society.
Total land area 85sq miles
- Arable area 50sq miles
- Cultivable area- 5sq miles
Temperatures:
- 300C – 400C
- Hottest Months-November-March
- Coldest month- July- August
Rainfall
- 762.5 millimeters-1220 millimeters
- Major season: April – JulyMinor season: September – November
Crop production
- About 30% of labour force is engaged in crop farming, fishing, processing, livestock and agro-forestry.
Major Crops
Onions, pepper, tomatoes, okra, leafy vegetables, maize, plantain, legumes, watermelon mushroom and vegetable.
Livestock production
- About 80 farmers are involved in producing Grasscutter. The average holding is about 10 but some farmers have as high as 300 animals. Most of these farmers are assisted technically by MOFA staff. CSIR staffs also assist by providing research information to assist farmers.
- The total number of sheep and goats in the municipality is currently 2013 and 4437 respectively.
A few dozen of farmers are involved in dairy production. Some of these farmers practice zero grazing where the animals are kept completely in-house and their nutritional and other requirements provided by the farmers. The challenge is feeding during the dry season where farmers need to travel long distances to get fodder for the animals. A few kraals are still located within the Municipality. This poses a lot of problems to the owners since most of them have a very big challenge in feeding their animals. The aim is o discourage farmers from meat-cattle production and replace them with dairy cows.
Fish production
Even though the Municipality is endowed with more than 18 water bodies only one attempt has been made to cultivate fish by a private investor. Fishing is done in some of this water bodies. By this information we are inviting private investor to consider investing into some of these water bodies.
Processing
There are four identified cottage industries that process fruits into juice. The challenge for these industries is getting raw material for processing throughout the year. Orange, mango, pineapple, water melon and ginger are the main raw materials that are processed. Quite a number of individuals and three major institutions process milk into different types of products.
Fertilizer subsidy programme
Farmers in the Municipality do benefit from the fertilizer subsidy. But since there is no fertilizer outlet within the Municipality the office is not directly involved in the subsidy programme.
Information on new initiatives
Adentan-MADU in collaboration with the Adentan Municipal Assembly (AdMA) is facilitating the production of grasscutter in the Municipality. So far ten groups of farmers have been supported with ten cages and forty animals towards the production programme.
Achievements 2008-2010
- Engaged in 50ha of block farming in three different commodities.
- With support from the Municipal Assembly 30 farmers were trained in grasscutter production. Ten cages and 40 grasscutters were also supplied to these farmers as start-up capital.
- Training and monitoring of farmers for poultry Nine hundred and twenty cockerels have so far been distributed. Based on 90% survival rate and a net profit of GHC5.00 it is estimated that farmers engaged in this project would have their livelihood increased by GHC4140
- Vaccination of small ruminants and pets against PPR and rabies respectively.