the impact of mechanization on agricultural in Ghana

Description

ABSTRACT

Mechanization is a multi-dimensional concept and widely used in agriculture. There is, however, a major difference between the application of mechanization in developed and developing countries The developing countries tend to design their own strategies in food security given the challenges they face in all aspects of their economy including feeding a growing population, reducing poverty, protecting the environment, managing the effects of climate change and fighting malnutrition all which may further contribute to a reduction in economic growth and political instability. The goal of the strategies, with the help of appropriate technologies, is to lead to a sustainable agricultural development and, ultimately, food security. The policy making in each country should be based on its own conditions. This article uses Ghana as an example of a developing country and considers the country’s specific climate as well as political and economic conditions to present development-oriented policies for achieving sustainable food security based on agricultural mechanization that may be adaptable to other developing countries. The main objective of this paper is to identify the impact of mechanization of Ghana’s agricultural sector such as ensuring food security.

To study a sustainable agricultural mechanization strategy, a SWOT analysis technique was used to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats and help us provide a framework by which policies can be defined. The framework includes internal and external factors that affect the development of agricultural mechanization and seek to provide ideas for agricultural development with the help of mechanization. These factors were then prioritized using the Hierarchical Analysis Method, and based on the obtained results, the final strategies were extracted and prioritized by the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS), a multi-criteria decision analysis method.

According to the results, weaknesses and threats were the most important factors. Environmental threats, especially water shortages, economic problems as well as availability of the mechanization fleet and compatibility of the equipment within the country’s agricultural system were identified as the most important factors affecting the agricultural development. In order to achieve sustainable food security, with regards to the identified factors the necessary recommendations and Governmental-support policies in the agricultural sector.

 

TABLE OF CONTENT

TITLE PAGE

CERTIFICATION

DEDICATION

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

ABSTRACT

TABLE OF CONTENT

CHAPTER ONE

1.0     INTRODUCTION                                                  

1.1     BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

1.2     PROBLEM STATEMENT

1.3     AIM AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

1.4     SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

1.5     SCOPE OF THE STUDY

1.6     SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

• OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY
• HISTORY OF AGRICULTURAL MECHANISATION
• POTENTIAL OF AGRICULTURAL MECHANISATION
• CONSTRAINTS TO MECHANISATION
• WORLD FOOD SECURITY AND DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
• AGRICULTURAL MECHANIZATION STRATEGY AND FOOD SECURITY
• ADVANTAGES OF AGRICULTURAL MECHANIZATION

 

CHAPTER THREE

METHODOLOGY

• INTRODUCTION
• STUDY DESIGN
• DATA COLLECTION
• SAMPLE AND SAMPLING METHOD
• DATA ANALYSIS

CHAPTER FOUR

• RESULT
• DISCUSSION

CHAPTER FIVE

• CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

REFERENCES

CHAPTER ONE

1.0                                                        INTRODUCTION

1.1                                           BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Agriculture is the economic mainstay of most African countries. FAO (2010) reported that in some African countries, agriculture generates up to 50% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), contributes over 80% of trade in value and more than 50% of raw materials to industries. It also provides employment for majority of Africa’s people. In Ghana, agriculture contributes 60% to Gross Domestic Product (GDP), 65% to employment and 50% to exports (Boahen et al., 2007).

Despite the enormous benefits Africa derives from agriculture, it still remains the only region in the world where agricultural productivity is largely stagnant. According to FAO (2010), yields of maize and other staple cereals have typically remained at about 1,000 kg/ha, which is about a third of the average achieved in Asia and Latin America. Furthermore, 30% to 40% of agricultural produce is lost owing to poor post-harvest handling, storage and processing methods. Ghana’s natural conditions for agriculture are advantageous. However, the country remains highly dependent on food imports. According to MoFA (2007), Ghana’s agricultural production currently meets only half of domestic cereal and meat needs and 60% of domestic fish consumption. Food self-sufficiency is achieved only in starchy staples such as cassava, yam and plantain, while rice and maize production falls far below demand (Economist Intelligence Unit, 2007; MOFA, 2007).

FAO and UNIDO (2008) cited the low level of engineering technology inputs in agriculture as one of the main constraints hindering the modernization of agriculture and food production systems in Africa. Studies by Clarke and Bishop (2002) reported that humans are the most significant power source in Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries where 65% of the land is cultivated by human power. In central and western Africa, they account for an estimated 85% and 70% of harvested area respectively, while the land cultivated by humans is an estimated 40% in East Asia and 30% in South Asia. Sustainable agricultural development enjoyed by most developing economies of Asia and Latin America over the past three decades has been made possible through the adoption of highly extensive agricultural mechanisation. Investment in agricultural mechanisation has enabled farmers in such countries to intensify production and improve their quality of life as well as contributing to national and local prosperity. Despite the importance of agriculture to most African economies, and despite low productivity, investment in agriculture with respect to mechanisation in Africa is still low (FAO and UNIDO, 2008). The agricultural sector in Ghana is characterized as predominantly practised on smallholder, family-operated farms using rudimentary technology to produce about 80% of Ghana’s total agricultural output. Additionally, agricultural production is generally dependent on rainfall, although an estimated 6,000 farm enterprises nationwide practised irrigation of various types in 1999. In 2002, the total area under formal irrigation was around 11,000 ha whereas the potential area, including inland valleys that could be developed for irrigation was estimated at 500,000 ha (MoFA, 2007).

Majority of Ghanaian farmers still work at very low levels of mechanisation; tilling the land with hand tools such as cutlasses and hoes and transporting their produce in baskets and sacks by carrying them on their heads. These labour intensive production methods limit the area under cultivation and are responsible for severe yield losses due to untimely-performed operations such as planting, weeding, harvesting, transport and storage. Moreover, the tedious fieldwork and low returns to labour make agriculture increasingly unattractive to the youth. Mechanisation of agricultural production is seen as the missing link to agro-processing and the development of agro-based industries (Loos, 2002; FAO, 2006).

Modernizing agriculture through mechanisation is an issue of concern in Ghana. However, it is still unclear as to what options are already available and what should be followed to achieve this goal. According to the National Development Planning Commission (2010), Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) is the foundation of national development. Sadly, agriculture which falls directly under STI is still dependent on rudimentary equipment such as hoes and cutlasses. The use of tractors, irrigation systems and other means of mechanisation are minimal. Existing policy documents, such as Food and Agriculture Sector Development Policy (FASDEP) and Medium Term Agriculture Sector Investment Plan (METASIP) have clear pronouncements on modernisation of agriculture. However, not much is being done to achieve the set goals. Stout and Downing (1976) reiterated the need for a coherent mechanisation policy and attributed the failure of agricultural development plans of most countries to the weak or non-existence of mechanisation policy component in such development guidelines. The objective of this study is to study the impact of agricultural mechanisation on Ghana’s agriculture.

1.2                                                  PROBLEM STATEMENT

Increasing productivity by updating executive operations in order to gain more power, increasing the level of cultivated land, moving toward industrialization and strengthening the market for rural economic growth and ultimately improving the livelihoods of farmers are the goals of mechanization [11, 12, 15]. As part of government’s effort to meet the UN Millennium Development goal of eradicating hunger and extreme poverty by the year 2015, there has been the need to modernise agriculture in order to achieve sustainable economic growth. In Sub-Saharan Africa and Ghana for that matter, the focus gradually is being shifted to mechanised agriculture which is necessary if food security in our part of the world is to be achieved. Without effective mechanisation, Ghana’s food and agricultural sector will not make the expected economic impact. In the pre-industrial stage in Western countries, one of the strategies to increase agricultural production was mechanization.

1.3                                    AIM AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The main aim of this study is the impact of mechanisation on agricultural in Ghana. The objectives are:

1. To ascertain the level at which mechanisation has increase agricultural production in Ghana.
2. To ascertain means of more adoption of mechanization in agricultural production in Ghana

• To make recommendations necessary for the proper adoption and practice of agricultural mechanisation in Ghana

1. To understand the need for a proper analysis and a formulation of an appropriate mechanization plan.

1.4                                           SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This study shall serve as means of understanding the need of mechanizing agriculture in any country. It will serve as a means of understanding constraints to mechanisation are lack of skilled labour to operate such machinery, small farm sizes, unfavourable government policies and high cost of farm machinery.

Finally, the study will serve as a means of motivating stakeholder on the need for adoption of agricultural machineries.

1.5                                                   SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The scope of this study covers means of self-sustaining agricultural mechanization strategy. In this study a SWOT analysis technique was used to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats and help us provide a framework by which policies can be defined. The framework includes internal and external factors that affect the development of agricultural mechanization and seek to provide ideas for agricultural development with the help of mechanization.