Scientific Publication

Better-off Women Boosting Groundnut Business in Ghana

author(s) Akpo, E - Ojiewo, C O - Omoigui, L O - Rubyogo, J C - Varshney, R K
from International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT)
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themes
regions
  • Sub-Saharan Africa
  • Africa
  • World
  • Western Africa
citation

Akpo, E and Ojiewo, C O and Omoigui, L O and Rubyogo, J C and Varshney, R K (2020) Better-off Women Boosting Groundnut Business in Ghana. In: Sowing Legume Seeds, Reaping Cash. Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd, Singapore, pp. 91-104. ISBN 978-981-15-0844-8

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Abstract

Groundnut was one of the biggest breeding programs in Ghana in the mid-nineties, but the production declined because of many factors including the rosette disease and the fact that there was no dedicated breeder of groundnut for over 10 years. According to Dr. Roger Kanton, Deputy Director of CSIR-SARI (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research - Savanna Agricultural Research Institute), it was then, in 2015, with the support of the Tropical Legumes Projects that the groundnut breeding program was reinitiated. “Only a few local germplasms were available,” adds Dr. Richard Oteng-Frimpong, a young groundnut breeder, who came along with the support of the Tropical Legumes projects to start again the breeding program in 2015. Groundnut production and processing in Nyankpala, Northern Ghana, is now seen as a business. Umar Jibril, a fabricator of groundnut shellers, narrates, “In 2006, we could barely fabricate one or two groundnut shellers in the year. Now we fabricate up to 4 groundnut shellers per month; the demand is very high to a point that clients must place an order well in advance. Our clients used to be the villagers but nowadays our clientele is made of small and medium enterprises.”

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