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agriculture as a vocation or further their education in agricultural related programmes. In achieving this broad objective, several teaching methodologies have been tested and deployed in teaching agricultural science in Ghanaian SHSs. This paper report findings of an action research conducted in Awe Senior High School in the Navrongo Municipality of the Upper East Region of Ghana investigating the best way of deploying project teaching method for effective result. Through simple random sampl...

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the performance of existing adaptation strategies against climate change impacts in the Semi-Arid Guinea Savanna of Ghana. The trend of rainfall (1985-2014) is declining. Rainfall pattern is erratic throwing farming calendar into disarray. Temperature trend for the same period is rising. This paper answers the question: how are existing adaptation measures to climate change influencing crop farming? The paper uses mixed method approach. Rainfall, te...

Background: A higher vegetable intake plays an important role in promoting general health and well-being, but there is a dearth of data on the independent effect of vegetable intake on health-related quality of life (HR-QoL). This study contributes to evidence on the independent effect of vegetable consumption on HR-QoL among women in fertile age. Methods: A cross-sectional study of a sample of rural women in fertile age (15–49 years, n = 187), randomly selected from 6 rural communities in th...

In sub-Saharan Africa, manure and loam soil are popular growing media substrates. However, their poor physiochemical properties limit their use in growing media. Following a survey of farmers, single species sawdust, mixed species sawdust, and rice husk (RH) were selected and composted with poultry manure. Additionally, the RH was charred for use in soilless media. Objectives were to produce feedstock-specific composts and determine appropriate proportion for using them in containerized system...

The study examines the factors influencing the adoption of organic vegetable technology and the effect of adoption on vegetable output in the Northern Region of Ghana. Farm level data on vegetable production was collected from 400 farmers, consisting of 200 adopters (organic vegetable farmers) and 200 non-adopters (conventional vegetable farmers). Descriptive statistics were used to analyse farmers’ perception about the benefits and problems associated with organic vegetable production. The T...

Improved rice production techniques are being promoted in Ghana as a way of enhancing sustainable productivity among farmers. Despite the important role that the adoption of improved rice production technologies plays in improving output, very few studies, especially in the context of Northern Ghana, have been conducted to analyse the factors influencing their intensive adoption. In this study, we compared the results of negative binomial, Poisson and zero inflated Poisson (ZIP) models to ana...

Consumers’ concerns over misuse of agrochemicals and untreated wastewater for irrigation in vegetable production are increasing demand for safer vegetables in urban cities. Providing safer vegetables requires production methods that minimize or eliminate the associated risks. Nevertheless, these practices involve extra cost, which requires that consumers, at least, bear part of the cost. The main objective of this paper is to examine factors influencing consumers’ willingness to pay price prem...

This study applied stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) and data envelopment analysis (DEA) to examine the technical efficiency of maize production in northern Ghana using cross-sectional data from 360 maize farmers for the 2011/2012 cropping season. Farm size, seed, fertiliser and herbicides had a positive effect on maize output. Agricultural mechanisation, extension services, experience and gender influenced technical efficiency. The study recommends that access to tractors be expanded to inc...

Soybean is an important cash crop with the potential of reducing poverty in the Northern Region of Ghana. Knowledge on the level of economic efficiency and the factors that influence such efficiency is a good beginning for addressing its sustainability problems. The study aimed at analysing economic efficiency of soybean production in the Northern Region of Ghana. Crosssectional data was collected from 500 soybean farmers across five districts in the region during the 2015 cropping season. Th...

Maize is a major source of food and cash for smallholder farmers. However, average yield in Ghana is less than a third of the achievable yield and thus the need to close this gap by improving the technical efficiency of farming households through employing the right combination of productive resources to achieve food sustainability. This study used the input-oriented data envelopment analysis to examine the technical efficiency of maize production in northern Ghana1 using cross-sectional data...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to find out how financial capital from rural banks is contributing to the livelihoods development of women farmers who constitute the most vulnerable and disadvantaged group in Ghana and other developing countries. Design/methodology/approach – Women farmers were randomly sampled, resulting in 100 beneficiary and 100 non-beneficiary women farmers who were used for the study. The incomes of women farmers were compared and the factors influencing income earning...

Shea nut meal is an agro-industrial by-product obta ined from the processing of the nuts of the shea tree ( Vitellaria paradoxa , Gaertn.) for fat. It is available for use by the poultry feed industry. There is a dearth of information on its n utritive value for poultry. The objective of this study was to evaluate the chemical and nutritive va lue of six samples of Ghanaian shea nut meal, which were produced by either expeller or tradition al method i...

The use of a relatively large and straight-edged voxel to acquire spectra from rather small and curved brain structures leads to data contamination in magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), known as partial volume effect (PVE). PVE arises due to the inclusion of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in the voxel, leading to underestimation of metabolite concentrations in quantitative MRS. Among the PVE correction techniques available, voxel segmentation to remove the CSF fraction appears to be the most r...

Between November and February of each year about 45-60% of the northern region (29% Ghana) of Ghana gets burned. The fires are associated with plant nutrient transfers of which local losses of P is of major concern given that it is relatively unavailable to crops in the prevailing Fe rich soils. Bush fires, however, provide essential cultural and socio-economic goods and services (as in hunting and land preparation for agriculture) at relatively cheap cost to the local populations: making it ...

In climate change adaptation, contract farming can facilitate the adoption of coping and adaptation strategies, but such dynamics are less understood in the literature. This study uses primary data collected from a cross section of crop farmers in northern Ghana and a simultaneous equation systems approach to examine the links between contract farming and adoption of climate change coping and adaptation strategies. The major coping and adaptation strategies used by farmers include spraying of...

The paper seeks to establish the implication of occupational distribution on income inequality. Data was collected from five independent sub-groups, two from the formal and the other two from the informal sectors with a fifth sample generated from these four samples. Lorenz curves and Gini coefficients were used to measure income inequality. The results show that though formal sector income sub-groups generated higher incomes they produced lower inequalities than the informal sector income su...

This study evaluated the effects of three dietary oils — palm kernel (PKO), palm (PO) and soyabean (SBO) — and two protein levels —high (HP) and low (LP) in a 3 x 2 factorial design involving 60 pigs on growth performance, muscle fatty acid composition and content, carcass, meat and eating qualities. Oil type did not have a significant effect on growth and carcass quality. PKO significantly reduced the polyunsaturated (PUFA) to saturated (SFA) fatty acid (P:S)_ratio in longissimus muscle (P <...

One of the most outstanding initiatives that the African Union (AU) has taken that distinguishes it from its predecessor (the Organization of African Unity) is the adoption of the African diaspora as its sixth region. This article has two principal sections. First, by establishing the reasons for adopting the African diaspora as its sixth region from development perspectives, it explores how the African diaspora can engineer development processes in Africa and the challenges that the AU must ...

Background Intimate partner violence (IPV) during pregnancy and postpartum is a serious global health problem affecting millions of women worldwide. This study sought to determine the prevalence of different forms of IPV during pregnancy and postpartum and associated factors among women in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional study among 500 women at one to nine months postpartum in three health facilities in the three districts of Dar es Salaam: Temeke, Kinondoni ...