Ingeniería de Sistemas de Riego y Drenaje

Impact of Block Farming on Livelihood of Farmers in the Eastern Region of Ghana: A Case Study of Block Farmers in the Kwahu West Municipality and Kwahu South District.

Abstract

Ofori Kwasi Julius

Ghana has implemented a lot of programmes and projects in the agricultural sector over the years that seek to reduce poverty enhance food security and also to improve farmers output as well as their productivity. Block farming is one of these projects that provided credit to farmers in term of inputs supply in a form of improved varieties of seeds, fertilizers and technical assistance in order for farmers to earn an appreciable returns and pay for the inputs after the crop season.
As a result of these the research seeks to assess the impact of block farming on livelihood of farmers in two beneficiary areas, the Kwahu West Municipality and Kwahu South District in the Eastern Region of Ghana. A simple random sampling technique was used to collect the data of block farmers and was analyzed using descriptive statistics. Findings revealed that most of the block farmers were in their active age, mainly of males and depend solely on farming for their livelihood. Almost all of the block farmers are motivated to go into block farming to earn a living and get readily available market for their produce. The block farming programme have had a moderately positive and significant impact on livelihood of farmers in Kwahu West Municipality and Kwahu South District in terms of farmers’ output, profit making, improvement in standard of living and revenue gain from sales of produce.