Economics of intercropping food crops in oil palm for small-scale farmers

Abstract

An intercropping food crops in oil palm experiment was conducted between 1994 and 1997 at the Oil Palm Research Institute, Kusi, to evaluate the economies of intercropping food crops in oil palm for the small-scale farmer. There were four treatments consisting of sole oil palm with pueraria cover crop; oil palm + maize + cassava, oil palm + maize + plantain and oil palm + maize + maize. Costs and benefits analyses of intercropping food crops in oil palm was done by comparing production cost and revenue for sole and the intercropped oil palm. The cost-benefit ratio in a declining order were: 3.6, 1.8, 1.6 and 0.18 for the oil palm + maize + cassava, oil palm + maize + maize, oil palm + maize + plantain and sole oil palm with pueraria, respectively. It was, therefore, economically sound at the given input and output quantities and prices to intercrop the oil palm with food crops.

JOURNAL OF THE GHANA SCIENCE ASSOCIATION Volume 2 No. 3 (2000) pp. 170-176