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The copyright of a submitted article is only transferred to the publishers if and when the article is accepted for publication. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, electrostatic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publishers.
Main Article Content
Optimal rice/colocasia cropping systems in the Ashanti, Eastern and Central regions within the semi-deciduous forest zone of Ghana.
Abstract
This study is a follow-up survey to investigate the economic viability of the Rice/Colocasia cropping systems introduced by the Root and Tuber Improvement Project (RTIP)/Ministry of Food and Agriculture in the year 2000. It explores the possibility of improving the net earnings of farm families through appropriate farm plans. A Linear Programming model was developed to optimize net income from the Rice and Colocasia enterprises subject to land and labour constraints. The model selected the inter-cropping system as the optimal enterprise in relation to the resources available and allocated 1.2 ha for this cropping system out of the 3 ha available to the typical farm household. The maximum net income obtained from the inter-cropping system for the model farm was ¢4,454,726 ($543.26). There was a binding labour constraint for the first weeding of the farming activities with a shadow price of ¢14.65. Due to labour bottlenecks in certain times of the year, farmers paid unrealistic labour wages of up to ¢8,000 which resulted in low labour productivity in the study area. About 56% of the farmers were females with the younger generation forming the majority (58.9%).
Journal of Science and Technology (Ghana) Vol. 27 (2) 2007: pp. 51-61
