Abstract:
The study sought to assess the effect of pineapple cultivation on rural
households: the case of smallholder farmers in the Ekumfi district of
Central Region, Ghana. Specifically, four research objectives were
investigated; to examine access to land for pineapple cultivation, to assess the
positive and the negative effects of pineapple cultivation on farming household,
to assess the challenges of the farmers in the pineapple cultivation and to explore
strategies for enhancing the benefits of pineapple cultivation. Employing a
descriptive research design and a mixed method approach, a census was used to
gather data from a total of 140 households’ respondents and 7 key informants
in the Ekumfi Nanabin of the Central Region of Ghana. Data for the study were
gathered through structured interview, questionnaires and observation. The data
collected was processed using the IBM SPSS Statistics (version 26). Descriptive
statistics purely mean and standard deviation were used to the address issues in
the study. The study found that acquisition and access to land for pineapple
cultivation in the Ekumfi Nanabin was mainly by inheritance and in some
instances by sharecropping agreement and rent. The study also found that
pineapple cultivation is a beneficial business venture but bedeviled with
challenges such as post-harvest losses, poor road network and inadequate access
to credit. The study recommends that Government provide farmers with
subsidized fertilizers, suckers and collateral free loans to increase pineapple
production. The poor road networks which mostly restrict transportation of
harvested pineapple should be constructed to ease these difficulties.
