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AGRICULTURAL SECTOR

Introduction

Ghana’s economy is generally regarded as agrarian, largely due to the sector’s contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP), labour absorption and to foreign exchange earnings. The 2010 PHC for the first time collected data on agricultural activities; namely, crop farming, tree growing, livestock rearing and fish farming. The data collected consisted of types of crops cultivated and trees crops grown, farm size and type of cropping; livestock types and their numbers, and the numbers of keepers. This chapter presents information on households that are into agriculture, the type of farming activities they practice and the number of livestock reared.

 Households in Agriculture

A household is defined to be an agricultural household if, at least, one person in the household is engaged in any type of farming activity, namely crop farming, tree growing, livestock rearing and fish farming (GSS, 2012). Only one out of every seven households (15%) in the district are not engaged in agricultural activities. The economy of the district is agrarian, with nine out of every 10 rural households and seven in 10 urban households are into agriculture.
 
Type of Farming Activities

It is 17,128 households in the Asutifi South District that is into agriculture. Almost all agricultural households (98.7%) are involved in crop farming, irrespective of the locality of residence. Slightly more than one-third (35.6%) are into livestock rearing whereas less than one percent (0.1%) are into fish farming. Although tree planting is also not a major feature among households in the district, there are more rural households in this venture. Livestock rearing is higher in rural areas (38.3%) compared to rural areas (27.1%). It must however be noted that some households are engaged in more than one agricultural activity.
 
Types of Farming Activities

Chicken is the most widely reared animal in the district forming (76.5%) of all animals reared. This is followed by sheep (6.5%), fish (4.9%) and Goat (4.7%). Chicken Keepers form 61.6percent of the population involved in animal rearing followed by sheep (15.7%) and goat (11.5%). Fish has the highest average fishes per keeper (385), snail (96) and cattle (29).


Date Created : 11/15/2017 3:17:41 AM