seaports at Accra and Tema respectively

by yixue327 It has been estimated that about 15% of the population of Ghana depend on horticultural export related production and or marketing for their livelihood (Ghana Export Promotion Council, 2002). Unlike, other non-traditional exports such as frozen fish and sea foods, the vast majority of Ghana's horticultural output is produced by smallholders operating less than 2 ha (Ghana Export Promotion Council, 2002) for whom it represents an important source of cash income. Most suppliers of export fruits and vegetables are found within the Semi-deciduous forest and Coastal savanna agro-climatic zones of the Eastern, Central and Greater Accra Regions of the country. The horticultural exports of significant export importance within southern Ghana are pineapples, mangoes, papaya, chillies and okra. However, this study essentially zeroed on pineapples and mangoes, the two major products with current remarkable export tiffany key pendant importance and clearly identifiable participating smallholders within the production and marketing chain.

The Akwapim south district was selected as the case study zone for pineapple production because it contributes about 60% of the total exportable pineapples from Ghana. The district population density of 289 persons per km2 is more than 3 times tiffany jewelry on sale the national average (Ghana Statistical Service, 2000) giving an indication of the extent of pressure on land both for human settlement and farming. Mango production on the other hand is currently dominated by large farm-holders scattered across the Coastal and Guinea savanna agro-climatic zones. This is by virtue of the fact that, it is probably the youngest export perennial crop within the industry with the oldest plantations being just over a decade old. Consequently, the Dangme west district has the highest number of smallholders producing mangoes in the country and therefore befits the target group for the purpose of this study. The sampled villages in the 2 districts are all located within a radius of 23km from the capital city, making it easily accessible to the national airport and major seaports at Accra and Tema respectively.

Besides, these two elsa districts represent strong regional differences in terms of the agricultural potential within their identified agro-climatic zones in the country. Their closeness to the national capital also explains the high degree of agricultural commercialization in these zones resulting from the strong backward and forward linkages between agricultural growth, employment opportunities and the demand for goods and services arising from both on-farm and off-farm enterprises.The household survey for the study was undertaken in the forest and coastal savanna transition zones of Ghana, where the farming system has undergone a remarkable transition from an established system of food crop (i.e., maize and cassava production) farming for sale to urban consumers to an intensive production of fruits (pineapples, mangoes) and vegetable crops for export to European consumers.

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