Small-scale agriculture in Bolgatanga, Ghana – a case study of how to make small-scale sustainable agriculture more profitable

Abstract

African economies are strongly associated to natural resources and depend in great extent on agriculture for sustention. The vulnerable climate farmers in sub-Saharan Africa are facing contributes to limitations in production efficiency and makes the agriculture business more risky compared to the industry in other environments and regions. Cooperation with the local registered nongovernmental organization, TRAX Ghana, and interviews with 116 farmers in two villages in the Northern region of Ghana has been performed during a field study to the location mentioned. This resulted in a deep understanding of the current situation which includes the environmental and economical difficulties the farmers face in the agriculture production. Moreover, it contributed to a generation of ideas for development in the area. However, the study changed focus after the first interviews from an idea of the main difficulty of pricing, to the more relevant and central profitability problem. With this in mind the report aims to create strategies for farmers in the region to become more profitable in a sustainable manner. Investments and savings have been identified to play a great part in the path of development for a successful agriculture production in the region of Northern Ghana.