An action programme for food crop marketing in Mpohor Wassa East District of Ghana
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Date
1992-09-15
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Abstract
The importance of agriculture in the development of Ghana as a source of food, employment and incomes for the people is well known. Food production in Ghana is dominated by small or peasant farmers who produce about 80 per cent of the agricultural output.
V Small farmers in Mpohor Wassa East District produce food crops both for subsistence and for the market. But these farmers do not have access to markets such that large quantities of the marketable surpluses do not reach the market but are rotten in the rural villages and farms. They live in poverty in the midst of surpluses which could not be sold for income. The study alms at proposing an action programme for improving food crop marketing in the district as an interventionist policy to alleviate poverty.
Baseline surveys were carried out in the major food producing areas of the district to ascertain their output levels and marketing functions, using such commodities as cassava, maize, plantain, cocoyam and rice as samples which are the main food crops grown in the area. Five periodic market centres in the district were also surveyed to find out commodity flows, area of influence of the markets, prices, volume of transactions, physical facilities and how buyers and sellers interact in the exchange process.
The study revealed that poor transportation system, inadequate storage facilities, limited market outlets, inadequate V finance and poor facilities in the market centres are the major problems of food crop marketing in the district. As a result of these problems, a few buyers visit the rural markets; demand for food crops is low in the district and so are the prices, while post-harvest losses are high. The few urban middlemen that venture into the rural markets make more profits out of the consumer price of food than do the farmers. Farm incomes’ are very low and most farmers could not afford the improved farm inputs to increase agricultural- productivity, hence, crop yields are low. The incentive to produce for the market is therefore being depressed. In this situation, many farmers are poor and their standard of living is low.
The study recommends some measures to improve the marketing infrastructure such as road network and vehicular movement, storage and processing facilities and market centres, and the organisation of farmers into co-operatives in order to strengthen their bargaining power with middlemen and enhance the flow of credit to farmers and local food traders. The proposed projects are to be financed by the communities and the District Assembly. A Task Force on Market Development is proposed to oversee the management of programme implementation.
The study concludes that measures to reduce rural poverty and ensure food security should focus on small farmer development.
Description
A thesis submitted to the Board of Postgraduate Studies, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the Degree of Master of Science in Development Planning and Management, 1992