Introduction

Ghana’s economy is regarded as agrarian, largely due to the sector’s contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) generally, labour absorption and to foreign exchange earnings. The contribution of agriculture to foreign exchange earnings averaged 45 percent in the 1990s but dropped to 40 percent in the 2000s (ISSER 2000, 2011). The sector’s contribution to GDP also declined from over 40 percent in the 1990s to 30 percent in the 2000s (ISSER, 2000, 2011). The district is predominantly agricultural based with about 85.3 percent of the economically active population in that sector (2010 PHC).

Households in Agriculture

The census defined an agricultural household as a household in which at least, one person in the household was engaged in any type of farming activity, namely crop farming, tree growing, livestock rearing and fish farming (GSS, 2012). The definition then identified households in which various agricultural activities were undertaken.

Figure 7.1 shows households engaged in agriculture by locality. The total number of households in Sefwi Akotombra District is 17,592 out of which 15,228 representing 86.6 percent of households are engaged in agricultural activities. In the urban areas, 1,100 households representing 69.0 percent of urban households (1,595) are engaged in agriculture while 88.3 percent (14,128) out of a total of 15,997 rural households are into agriculture.