ABSTRACT Around the developing world, poverty remains an overwhelming rural issue. Rural dwellers rely heavily on agricultural activities and related assets as main source of livelihoods. They also have widely differing capacities to combine off-farm activities in their income generation process. However, diversification makes households better-off only if it implies increased investment in high return portfolios. An important concern is that high yielding investments are either high risk or ...
ABSTRACT Early maturing provitamin A (PVA) quality protein maize (QPM) hybrids with combined drought and low soil Nitrogen (low-N) tolerance are needed to address malnutrition and food insecurity problems in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). In response to this need, PVA-QPM inbred lines with drought and low-N tolerant genetic backgrounds were developed through the concerted effort of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture Maize Improvement Program (IITA-MIP) for hybrid development and c...
ABSTRACT In order to solve the crisis faced by the energy sector in Ghana, Jatropha has been promoted as a panacea and promising crop for bioenergy generation. Like other crops, Jatropha cultivation comes with opportunities. The study aims at analyzing how Jatropha adoption influences the level of crop incomes of farmers and the preferences for production contracts in Northern Ghana. The first objective is to identify the factors explaining farmers’ adoption and land allocation of Jatropha ...
ABSTRACT Malaria remains a major public health problem in Africa, with An. funestus as one of the principal vectors. In the control of malaria, vector control has been successfully implemented in many malariaendemic countries with indoor residual spraying (IRS) as an existing front-line measure. IRS has been implemented in some selected sites in Northern Ghana since 2009 and its effect on the members of An. funestus is poorly understood. Therefore, this study was aimed at investigating the sp...
ABSTRACT Trees in general and leguminous trees in particular form an integral part of the traditional farming systems in Ghana. Compared to other plants, leguminous trees have the advantage that, they are generally capable of growing better on N-deficient soils due to their ability to convert unavailable atmospheric N2 into plant utilizable N. However, several factors including the abundance and effectiveness of the specific rhizobial partner, the available N and P in soil, are among the impo...
ABSTRACT Eight soil series from two agro-ecological zones of Ghana were evaluated for their suitability for maize production intensification using three approaches: the Soil Quality Index (SQI), DSSAT yield simulations and the Multi-criteria Analysis (MCA). Four of the series were from the Forest – Savanna Transition namely Wenchi series (Feric Dystric Leptosol), Ejura series (Haplic Lixisol), Damongo series (Dystric Nitosol) and Lima series (Eutric Gleysol). The four soils from the Guinea ...
ABSTRACT Inefficiencies in maize production do not only have adverse effect on the output of maize but it also poses a serious threat to income generation, food security and the general welfare of the people. Therefore, the aim of this study is to examine the level and determinants of technical efficiency of maize farmers. The proportionate stratified and simple random technique was used to select 306 maize farmers. Descriptive statistics was used to describe farm and farmer specific characte...
ABSTRACT Understanding smallholder farmers’ behaviour in terms of adaptation to weather risks provides the means to design policies that will help farmers address weather risks and have an effective impact on farmers’ livelihoods. This study is undertaken with this perspective by analysing how smallholder farmers’ adaptive capacity affects their choice of adaptation strategies to weather risks. The research sought to, i) analyse farmers’ perceived vulnerability to weather risks, their...
ABSTRACT Though it is government policy to modernize the agricultural sector and make it a catalyst for rural transformation making Ghana an agro-industrialized country, very few students pursue agricultural programme as compared to other programmes at the SHS level. These students who pursues the agricultural programme do not match up to the standard in terms of skill acquisition to meet the job market hence tend to be ‘job seekers’ and end up in other sectors. The main objective of the ...
ABSTRACT This research was conducted from May, 2015 to July, 2016 in the three mango growing districts of the Northern Region of Ghana to obtain baseline information on farmers’ knowledge and perception on prevalence, spread, economic importance and control of mango tree decline disease; determine disease incidence and severity; identify the causal agent(s) of the disease and to develop a chemical control regime for management of the disease. Questionnaire survey and interviews were used to...
ABSTRACT An experimental study of solute transport during one-dimensional sorption of a solution of KC1 into a uniformly packed horizontal soil column of Akuse clay, (a tropical clay loam from Ghana which is dominantly montmorillonitic) and Brookston clay of the Huron Catena (dominantly illitic) is reported in this thesis. A hydrodynamic equation based on the existing theories of irreversible thermodynamics is developed to incorporate the effect of anion exclusion in the usual hydrodynamic eq...
ABSTRACT The series of investigations carried out into the blast disease of oil palm seedlings, a disease of high economic importance, showed that the disease was widespread in nurseries throughout south-westem Nigeria, The disease was prevalent between October of the year of planting and March of the following year and appeared to be severest in November and Deeember. The incidence of the disease was lower among seedlings planted into the nursery at the beginning of the rainy season in April...
ABSTRACT A study was undertaken to determine the plankton and benthos of Ekole River in Bayelsa State of Nigeria. Surface water and sediment samples were collected in the dry (December-January) and wet (June –July) seasons between 2003 and 2004 for plankton and benthic analyses. The water temperature ranged from 27-33°C, pH 6.30-7.5, total suspended solids (T.S.S) 110-282 mg/L, Chloride 15.40- 39.6 mg/l, dissolved oxygen 4.11-10.83 mg/l and conductivity 64.5-84.55µS/cm. The total plankton...
ABSTRACT This study sought to find answers to the questions of whether the Food Crop Development Project improved farmers’ access to credit, changed farmers savings culture or whether small-scale maize farmers adopted the improved maize production practices. In addition, the study seeks to know whether or not there has been any significant difference in food security situation between participant and non-participant farmers. Descriptive-Correlation survey was conducted and using multistage ...
ABSTRACT The impact of special events on host communities has been well documented. Relatively few studies have examined the effects of local events on host communities, especially in Ghana. The purpose of this thesis was to investigate residents’ perception of the effects of two local events, precisely Oguaa Fetu Afahye and PANAFEST events in Cape Coast. Primary source of data was employed during the fieldwork, which was undertaken between December, 2017 and January, 2018. Data was gathere...