Ninety farmers from three villages in the Ejura-Sekyedumasi district of the Ashanti Region of Ghana were surveyed during September 2003 to determine practices used to produce peanut. Surveys were conducted in a district where farmer field schools were initiated by collaboration among scientists and practitioners from Ghana and the United States. Results from the survey of growers and components of the peanut farmer schools are presented in this article. Surveys indicated that performing germination tests prior to planting and planting peanut in rows were practices adopted most by peanut farmers attending formal farmer schools. Surveys also suggest that soil fertility and lack of host-plant resistance and disease-control practices are yield limiting in the region. Results from these surveys and discussions in farmer field schools will be used to target production and pest management practices that can be improved through research and education efforts to improve peanut production and well being of farmers in the district.
Groundnut is an important food and cash crop in Ghana and other countries in West Africa (
Understanding how peanut farmers in Ghana perceive the benefits of integrated pest management (IPM) is important in developing methods to transfer technology to a wide range of farmers in order to increase yield. A collaborative IPM program was developed among scientists and practitioners at North Carolina State University (US) and the Crops Research Institute (Ghana) to develop a research base for peanut production and pest management and to extend pertinent findings to peanut farmers in the region. Sound agronomic practices are one of the most feasible and practical ways for controlling aflatoxin (caused by
A survey of 90 farmers was conducted between September 5 and 14, 2003 in the Ashanti Region of Ghana, West Africa in the Hiawoanwu, Bonyo, Dromankuma, and Ejura villages in the Ejura-Sekyedumase district. The survey consisted of questions related to production and pest management practices by farmers in the region. Additionally, farmer field schools consisted of 20 farmers exposed to a variety of pest management and production practices including land preparation, seed and cultivar selection, production practices, pest management, fertility, and post-harvest handling during the peanut production cycle from 2002 and 2003. Farmers and researchers met bi-weekly at one on-farm site to follow crop development and discuss production and pest management issues. Chi-square test was used to compare responses (
Mean age of farmers was 40.9 years, and the number of years farmers received formal education was 3.8 years (
Only 6% of respondents received financial credit for production of peanut (data not presented). Four percent received loans from local banks while the other two percent of respondents received credit that came from Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) or family members (data not presented).
Ninety-two percent of the 90 farmers planted peanut as a monocrop system, with the majority of farmers planting only one field of peanut per year (data not presented). The majority of the farmers (73 of 90) cultivated only one field of peanut in 2003 (data not presented). Sixteen percent of farmers cultivated two fields while 3% of respondents cultivated more than two fields of peanut (data not presented). The mean size of the largest field cultivated in 2003 was 0.68 ha (
The cultivar China was planted by 63% of farmers (
Farmers began planting peanut between January and September with 30% planting in March, 28% in April, and 16% in August (data not presented). This region of Ghana has two rainy seasons with one running from March through July (major season) and a second running from September through October (minor season). Seventy-seven percent of respondents planted during the major rainy season while the remaining 23% planted peanut during the September through October period (data not presented).
The majority of the farmers (87%) tilled their fields and planted flat with only 12% planting on ridges and only 1% planting on mounds (data not presented). Thirty-two percent of the farmers planted peanut in rows and 68% planted at random. Only 2% of the farmer's applied synthetic fertilizer to improve their soil fertility and increase peanut yield, and just 1% used animal manure to increase soil fertility (data not presented).
Rosette, a viral disease transmitted by aphids (
Squirrel (
Eighty-eight percent of the farmer's stored peanut unshelled and 12% of farmers shelled peanut prior to storage. Reasons given for storing in unshelled condition were that no chemicals were needed (17%), extending shell life (52%), avoiding insects (20%), high prices of peanut (6%), and 6% did not give a reason for storage approach.
Peanut was marketed virtually throughout the year, however, peaks of marketing were observed in March and November (data not presented). Marketing constraints listed by respondents included traders dictating prices (29%) and low prices (32%) while 36% indicated that they had no constraints to marketing peanut (data not presented).
Twenty of the 90 farmers in the original survey were involved in farmer field school activities during 2002 and 2003 (data not presented). Only 5% attended farmer field schools prior to 2002 (data not presented).
Determining seed germination was an important component of the farmer field school. Forty percent of farmers implemented seed germination tests after observing this technique at farmer field schools (
The majority of respondents had never planted a disease-resistant cultivar (97%, data not presented). Ninety-one percent of farmers did not know host-plant resistance was a possibility while 9% indicated that searching for resistant cultivars was extremely time consuming (data not presented).
Demonstrating planting peanut in rows rather than at random was an important component of the farmer field schools. In 2003, 32% of farmers seeded peanut in rows. Fifty-five percent of the farmers planting in rows indicated that they modeled this approach after other farmers (
Accurate identification of pests and the damage they cause is an essential component of IPM. Only 29% of farmers indicated that they could accurately identify pests (data not presented). Additionally, only 3% of farmers could identify beneficial insects (data not presented). Of those farmers who could identify pests, farmer field schools were mentioned as the source of information.
Fifty percent of farmer school participants tested seeds for germination prior to planting compared with only 17% of non-participants (
The majority of farmers indicated that area planted, yield, quantity of peanut sold and consumed, and income increased over the duration of the farmer field school initiative (
The Peanut CRSP, USAID (LAG-G-0096-90013-00), supported this research financially.
1Crops Research Institute, Kumasi, Ghana.
2Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana.
3Ejura-Sekyedumasi District, Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Ghana.
4North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695-7620.