Ghana - Ghana Agricultural Production Survey (Minor Season) 2013, Second Round

Start	End	Cycle
2013-01-01	2013-06-18	6 Months

Start	End	Cycle
2013-01-01		6 Month

Computer Assisted Personal Interview [capi]
The Ghana Agricultural Production Survey (GAPS) is a pilot program to assess an improved version of SRID’s Multi-Round Annual Crop and Livestock Survey (MRACLS). The main goal of the pilot is to provide basic statistics and indicators for planners and researchers to assist implement policies and strategies in the agricultural system in Ghana. The GAPS was first piloted during the 2011/2012 cropping season in twenty districts, two in each region. Upon recommendation of assessors at the end of the pilot, the survey hereby referred to as GAPS II was repeated during the 2012/2013 major and minor cropping seasons in the same districts with some modifications. In all 4,000 farm holders were randomly selected and interviewed in the 20 selected districts.

District infrastructure was upgraded in the 20 districts to improve data collection efforts and raw data once collected is entered into a data entry program that was created for the survey. Dropbox and PureSync were organized on each computer which made the data collected automatically available to SRID at headquarters. Report on the major season survey which focused on land area cropped for various crops as well their land productivity was presented in Volume I of the GAPS II report. This report is the Volume II and final part of the second phase of the minor season GAPS II. It presented the results on pre-harvest and post-harvest activities of selected agricultural household and holders. Specific areas covered under pre-harvest interviews include; general characteristics of household members, information on livestock/poultry/other animals, tree crops and aquaculture whilst post-harvest household and holding enquiry covered field practices, inputs and expenses, crop production and marketing, shocks/adaptations to shocks, other income-generating activities and health.

The results showed that generally, there were more male agricultural holders than female. About 25 percent of holders falls in the age bracket of 40-49 years whilst 42 percent are above age 50. The average household size per district ranges between 4 and 14. Yendi and Gushiegu in the Northern region recorded the largest average household size of 10 and 14 respectively while the smallest average size of 4 was recorded in Ga West Municipal in the Greater Accra region.

54 With regards migration, the survey revealed that movement from the northern part of the country to capital city, Accra ranges between 2.1 percent to 14.3 percent whilst for the southern sector it is between 26.1 percent and 56.2 percent. On production and utilization, the survey results showed that a greater proportion of holders produced mainly for sale while the common storage facility used were room storage and crib/barn. As much of 29 percent of holders interviewed have no storage facility. Traditional livestock production (small and large ruminants) is concentrated in the northern part of the country while the non-traditional (grasscutter, pigeon and rabbit) is skewed to the southern sector districts.

The survey also collected information on the health status of holders. The results showed that 23% of selected holders across districts missed a full day’s work due to ill health whilst 14% of holders missed a full day’s work due to ill health of another household member. The use of certified seed the survey revealed was not common among respondents. It was observed that only 9.2 percent of respondents used certified seed. Even though NPK was observed to be the most used fertilizer (49 %), sulphate and urea were equally patronised (48.9 and 48.5 and 48.3 respectively).

The questionnaires used in the minor season survey include the followings:-

(a) The Household and Holding Inquiry - Pre-Harvest questionnaire, also known as the form 2a. This was used to make enquiries on the general characteristics of households and holdings for pre-harvest farming activities during the minor season. Information sought included changes in the household composition, detailed information on livestock, poultry and other animals owned by the selected holders, detailed information on tree crops grown by the selected holders, information on aquaculture practices, inputs, outputs and assets.

(b) The Household and Holding Inquiry - Post-Harvest questionnaire, also known as form 2b. This was used to make enquiries on field practices, inputs and outputs. The following information were sought: inventory of fields, inputs and expenses, Remaining major season production and marketing of crops, minor season crop production and marketing, holding information, shocks and adaptation to shocks, other income generating activities and household health status.

(c) The Household and Holding Inquiry - Pre-harvest field measurements questionnaire known as the form 3. This questionnaire was used to gather data on the nature and characteristics of crop fields and area measurements for individual crop fields for all selected holdings.

(d) Crop Yield Measurement questionnaire also known as the form 4. This was used to seek for data on the yields of food crops such as the cereals, root and tubers, plantain, legumes and nuts, and vegetables.

Name	Abbreviation	Affiliation
Ministry Of Food and Agriculture / Statistics Research Information Directoriate	MoFA/SRID	Government Of Ghana

Each district had a core team consisting of 4 District Agricultural Statistics Agents (DASAs) and one District Agricultural Statistics Officer (DASO). The DASO acted as supervisors of the DASAs while the District Director of Agriculture (DDA) coordinated the whole survey operations. A DASA administered questionnaires in 10 selected Enumeration Areas and therefore interviewed 100 agricultural holders.