Artificial Way of Breeding Midges for Cocoa Production
Chapter One
Aim and Objectives of the Study
The aim of the study is to establish the artificial way of breeding midges for cocoa production
.The study seeks to:
- Determine factors that influence farmers’ perception of artificial way way of breeding midges within the Tafo Cocoa District.
- Determine factors that influence farmer’s level of knowledge on the hand pollination techniques.
- Identify the relationship between farmers’ knowledge, perception and each of the independent variables of farmers on the use of artificial way of breeding midges and general effect on farm practices and yield.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction
Although the significant impact of cocoa to the world cannot be questioned leading to a large documentation about its cultivation, production and contribution to the world especially Ghana, majority of the research done are skewed towards the socio-economic factors, agronomical (Osei-Bonsu et. al., 2002), soils and fertilizers studies (Appiah et al., 2000), as well as integrated pest management with very little work done on the studies of insect pollinators and related species. This section seeks to review relevant literature pertaining to the subject matter of the thesis. Firstly, the historical nature of cocoa production in Ghana as well as some government agricultural policies, the structure and stability of the Cocoa Flowers making inference on fruit setting will be reviewed theoretically and then proceed to understand the factors that affect the production of cocoa. Furthermore, reviews on pollination and cocoa pollinators that is the ecology of cocoa pollinators would be looked at since important gaps still remain in this regard. Lastly, the perception farmers have in the cocoa industry would also be reviewed.
History of Cocoa Production
The origination of cocoa can be traced from the headwaters of the Amazon (Manu, 1989). Cocoa which is an important commercial crop has its cultivation and value spread in ancient times throughout central and Eastern Amazonian towards the north through to Central America. Furthermore, it is planted extensively in areas that share borders with the Gulf of Guinea in West Africa; notably Dahomey, Nigeria, Ghana, Cote d’ivoire, Sierra Leone, Togo and Liberia (Kishore, 2010). Records from the Ministry of Manpower, Youth and Employment, 2007, shows that, the missionaries from Dutch were credited to be the first people to grow cocoa along the coastal areas of the then Gold Coast now Ghana as early as 1815, with the Basel missionaries also giving the farming of cocoa a try by planting cocoa at Aburi in the year 1857. But, these efforts by these missionaries did not yield a positive result for the spreading of cocoa cultivation until one man who was an indigene of Osu by name Tetteh Quarshie brought Amelonado pods of cocoa from Fernando Po in the year 1879 and tried it at Akwapim Mampong by establishing a farm there. Cocoa cultivation began to spread when farmers bought cocoa pods from Tetteh Quarshie’s farm to plant. The government of Ghana in recognition of the contribution of cocoa to the development of Ghana established the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) in the year 1947 to be the main government agency responsible for the development of the industry. It is indicated in the study of Ensminger et al. (1995), which a Swedish botanist by name Linnaeus having observed the reputation gained by cocoa assigned the plant species to genus named Theobroma cacao L. – which literally means the “food for the gods”. About 1.6 million Ghanaians are recorded to be small farmers that produce cocoa on plots in forest areas that are less than three hectares (ha) (ESDD, 2002).
With respect to the exportation of cocoa to Europe; the very first exportation was dated 1585 which was from Veracruz to Cadiz. With the subject of exportation, Ghana has seen a remarkable increase in the level of tonnes of cocoa it has exported over the years. In the year 1900, Ghana exported about 546.72; this figured increased to 2,856.00T in 1905 and in 1936 about 317,220T was exported and that figure represented half of the total world production at that time (Manu, 1989). However, according to Adjinah and Opoku (2010), Ghana became the leading producer of cocoa in the year 1964/1965. Although the early 1960’s saw Ghana becoming the world’s largest cocoa producer, by the early 1980’s the production of cocoa in Ghana had dwindled almost to the point of insignificance. Factors recorded to have attributed to the drop of cocoa production from more than 450,000 tons per year to a low 159,000 tons in the year 1983/84 includes the increasing aging of trees, bad weather, widespread disease, as well as low producer prices. In the work of Clark, 1994, a revision in the figures shows that cocoa production in the year 1988/89 amounted to 301,000 tons; with the year 1990/91 recording 293,000 tons; and 305,000 tons were recorded in 1992/93. The year 1993-1994 saw a decline of the crop to 255,000 tons but the crop was projected to return to the range of 300,000 tons in the year 1994/1995.
With six out of ten regions recorded to produce cocoa, the main seasons identified to be the production period in Ghana are classified as the light crop season which normally begins from September to June, and from October to May, which is normally the main crop season. A lot of activities go into the cultivation of cocoa starting with planting, and then proceeding to maintenance, harvesting, drying and then bagging the beans for either exportation or marketing.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This chapter seeks to examine the methodology necessary to investigate the variables under study. Moreover, the research approaches which includes the study design, study area, target population, data collection instruments, sample and sampling techniques, reliability as well as the validity test of the instruments and the data analysis of the method will further be discussed in this chapter.
Research Study Design
According to Mouton and Marias (1988), research designs are based on information gathering technique and the nature of the problem that helps to arrange conditions for the collection and analysing of data in a way that gives meaning and understanding the research under study. The grouping of research methods according to Khan, 2012, is done in three ways, namely; qualitative, quantitative and mixed method. The method that has to do with accuracy, reliability and generalisation of results is what is termed “quantitative research” (Lewis and Thornhill, 2012). To achieve this, workable hypothesis and questions that leads or help to generalise the findings are developed; this is because it considers the use of collecting numeric data to exhibit the relationship between the theoretical aspect and research.
The qualitative research approach was explicitly defined by Kothari (2004), to be concerned with subjective assessment of postures, conduct and opinions. To implicitly define it, Dampson and Ofori, (2011), explained it to be the method that makes use of the technique of observation, case studies, interview guides that built on the subjective elements of the researcher into findings and conclusions. Morse and Niehaus, (2009), defined the mixed method as one that make use of both the quantitative and qualitative approach and with this method it begins with the researcher setting hypothesis and then testing the hypothesis by quantitative methods and vice versa (Bryman and Bell, 2007). Hence, a research methodology could be defined as the researcher’s choice about cases to study, the tools used for data collection and the strategies of data analysis that is used in planning and executing the research (Silverman, 2006). But, the choice of method to apply depends on the nature of the research under consideration. It was however argued by Morgan and Smircich (1980), the social phenomena that is being explored determines the quality of the research method. Base on the nature of the variables being studied, the positivists approach (quantitative research method) would be employed. Much emphasis is placed on the different constructions and meanings provided by the informants upon their experience in the cocoa production business.
The procedures which serves as a plan, blueprint to aid in data collection, measurement and analysis of data to carry out a research is termed as a study design (Neelankavil, 2007). The cross-sectional survey was use in our study based on the lesson learnt and the problem understudy. In cross-sectional survey data analysis from more than one case are required and used at a single time. It was explained further by Sauders et. al., (2012) to be the type of design that allows association and variations between variables that make use of quantitative data in their analysis.
CHAPTER FOUR
ANALYSIS OF DATA AND PRESENTATION OF FINDINGS
This chapter considers the results and analysis of the study. The chapter is further partitioned to incorporate the main sections under discussion and is presented as follows:
Farmers demographic Characteristics
In this section the analysis of the biographical information of the respondents are presented. Data was collected on the age, gender, educational level, marital status, and migration status. The total respondent amounted to 110 and presented below is the analysis over the total respondent.
The pie chart percentage distribution as shown in Figure 4.1 depicts the age distribution of the farmers. It can be seen that majority of the respondent (85 which represent 77.23%) are males and 21.23% which represent 25 respondents were female. This affirms the assertion that males prefer to enter into agriculture than females.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
This chapter captures the summary, and conclusions that arose from the findings of the study and also set some recommendations based on the conclusions that were drawn from the study.
Summary
The difference in perceptions and knowledge of pollination has been a major obstacle in farmer- researchers collaboration and cooperation which is a necessity for sustainable management of pollination services. The goal of the study was to ascertain cocoa farmer’s knowledge and perception of artificial way of breeding midges and its effect on their practices. The demographic background of farmers in the Tafo district in the Eastern region of Ghana was studied. The study was sampled among 110 farmers and farmers’ perceptions and knowledge were investigated. The findings showed an extremely low and gender biased with males dominating the cocoa farming industry. The cocoa farming industry was also observed to increase with age with the minimum age found in the study to be eighteen years and about 86% representing the majority of them aged 40 years and above. Respondents from the study revealed that majority of farmers within the Tafo district has obtained at least basic level of education but just a few had tertiary education. The probit model also showed that the factors that influence farmers knowledge on the application of artificial way of breeding midges includes gender, age, educational level, farming experience, farm size and cocoa income while that of the tobit model shows the factors that influences farmers perception of artificial way of breeding midges application. Farm size was also observed to correlates positively with the output or yield of cocoa since a larger farm size will lead to majority of the trees been hand pollinated but will only be possible if and only if the farmers knowledge and perception is increased.
Conclusion
The role of cocoa in the Ghanaian economy is very well acknowledged in this study and various other studies such Dormon et. al. (2004) and Vigneri (2008) although, its production relative to crop yield at the expense of less expensive and novel policies such as hand pollination application is of great concern. This is because the yield of cocoa per hectare in Ghana is low compared to the other major producers (MoFA, 2003). The study commenced with the understanding and identification of gaps that exist in the studies done of artificial way way of breeding midges. It was then followed by a survey in the Tafo district in the eastern region. Even though the argument of the findings of this study shows that hand pollination is one significant area that should be given the needed attention in order to enhance productivity, the results indicated that there is a huge gap to fill given the potential that can be achieved by both researchers and farmers. This study has shown that although there is much knowledge on other policies such as weeds, pests and diseases control, application of fertilizers, farm maintenance etc., the knowledge and perception farmers had on the application of artificial way of breeding midges is very minimal. The analysis shows farmers decision to apply hand pollination on their farms would be greatly influenced by the gender of the farmer, age of the farmer, years of experience the farmer has in the industry, educational level of the farmer etc. In addition, the significant variables or factors that influence the knowledge and perception of farmers in their quest to apply hand pollination were years of farming experience, average age of the farm, the farm size, farmers group or membership of farmers based organisation.
It is expected that with the application of the findings (that is more education given to farmers about hand pollination) the production of cocoa not just in Ghana but West Africa and the world as a whole would increase in terms of yield per hectare without necessarily expanding the acres used in the farming of cocoa. The findings when employed by the Extension Unit of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture would help farmers incorporate hand pollination in their practice of cocoa cultivation and would go a long way to increase production.
Recommendations
The study has brought to light and has also added to literature about the knowledge and perception cocoa farmers had on the application of artificial way of breeding midges. From the findings of the study, the following recommendations are made:
- Women are to be encouraged to enter into cocoa
- Majority of farmers in the Tafo Cocoa District seems to have some basic level of education; hence, importance should be placed on periodically educating farmers on the appropriate farming techniques to be employed.
- The formation of farm-based associations should be encouraged in order to help increase the awareness of information.
- COCOBOD needs to encourage cocoa farmers to adapt to techniques such as hand pollination that will increase production and also minimize excessive land expansion.
REFERENCE(S)
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