Introduction

The 2010 PHC covered agriculture as one of the modules for the first time in the history of national censuses in Ghana. Ghana is predominantly an agricultural country with the sector providing major income generating activities for most of the population and contributing to about 30 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GSS, 2013).
Detailed information was collected on the nature and characteristics of the sector and population involved. The census found that overall, 45.8 percent and 83.7 percent of households are engaged in agriculture in Ghana and Upper East Region respectively (GSS, 2013).
This chapter examines the distribution of agricultural population and households in KNWD by agricultural activities namely, crop farming, tree planting, livestock rearing and fish farming.

Households in Agriculture

Major agricultural activities engaged in by households in the district are crop farming and livestock rearing. Table 7.1 shows the distribution of agricultural households in KNWD by agricultural activity and types of locality (urban-rural residence). Households engaged in agriculture constitute 90.7 percent of total households in the district and non-agricultural households account for only 9.3 percent. The figures suggest the economy of the district is predominantly agrarian. Of the households engaged in agriculture, majority (98.2%) are into crop farming, followed by those into livestock rearing (78.0%). Only a small proportion of the households engaged in agriculture do tree planting (0.9%) and fish farming (aquaculture) (0.1%).

In urban areas, households engaged in agriculture are 75.0 percent and 93.4 percent in rural areas (Table 7.1). Crop farming is done by most households (95.4%) in the urban areas and in rural areas (98.6%), followed by those into livestock rearing accounting for 67.0 percent of households in urban areas and 79.6 percent of rural households. A small proportion of households in urban (2.0%) and rural (0.8%) are involved in tree growing. For fish farming, very few households are into it in both urban and rural areas (0.1% each). Except for fish farming, the rural proportion in all other areas of agricultural households is greater than those of urban areas, indicating that agriculture is predominantly rural in KNWD.

Types of Farming Activities

Crop farming and livestock rearing are the main agricultural activities in the district. Livestock rearing was the second commonest agricultural activity after crop farming. Fish farming and tree growing are uncommon activity in agricultural households. According to the results, only nine households (0.1%) and 106 (0.9%) of the agricultural households are engaged in fish farming and tree growing respectively across the entire district (Table 7.1). The low proportions of fish farming recorded in both urban and rural areas is probably because many households are unaware of fish farming or have not taken interest in the activity.

Table 7.2 shows the types of livestock reared, the numbers and the average number of animals per keeper. Among the traditional livestock (sheep, goats, cattle and pig), most people rear goats (30.7% of keepers) followed by chicken (23.5% of keepers) and sheep (20.4% of keepers). Although most livestock keepers kept goats, the average animal per goat keeper is the same as that for cattle, 9 animals each, but less than that for pigs (11 animals per keeper).
In the birds category, (chicken, turkey, guinea fowl, dove, and duck), the average number per holder ranges from 6 turkeys to 19 chickens. The non-traditional livestock (rabbit, grasscutter, and ostrich) are not reared by many households.