Farmers in four districts of Ghana have reported a double in their revenue and increased productivity by 61% from the cultivation of improved cassava in three years.
Each of 187 farmers in the districts of Ho West, Adaklu, Central Tongu, and Ho Municipal who had adopted the improved cassava variety under the “Modernising Agriculture in Ghana project” (MAG), increased their revenue from GH5,040 in 2017 to 10,662 in 2020 averagely.
The study was conducted by the Science and Technology Policy Research Institute (STEPRI) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and disclosed in a MAG dissemination workshop held on December 21, in Accra.
MAG project
The MAG project was a five-year initiative introduced in 2017 to provide budgetary and technical support in response to the objectives of food and agricultural sector development policies, productivity, and value chain management issues to increase farmers’ incomes and livelihoods.
It focused on research and alternative methods of extension that facilitated the dissemination of technologies to farm households, out-growers, and Farmer Based Organisations (FBOs) amongst others.
The study also revealed that while non-adopters increased their yield by less than 1%; from 7.57 metric tons per hectare in 2017 to 7.61 metric tonnes averagely, the productivity of adopters increased by 62%; from a total of 8.15 metric tonnes in 2017 to 13.18 in 2020.
Mrs Justina Onumah, Senior Research Scientist, said smallholder farmers need improved planting materials and technologies nationwide to improve their output. She explained there seemed to be some inequality with regards to the use of technology in increasing productivity between smallholder farmers and large-scale farmers; adding they were not abreast with modern trends.
“So going forward whilst we are improving all these tools for farmers, we should also be thinking of how soft we could make these approaches such that our farmers will be able to adapt and use them.
The study found that more than 50% of both males and females adopted the improved cassava variety. However, youth participation was low. The non-adopters on average had increased revenue from GH 3,405 in 2017 to 4,702 in 2020.
