Introduction

Agriculture plays a vital role in the socio economic development of The District with 57.0 percent of the employed population engaging in agriculture as discussed in chapter four of this report. Also, agriculture remains the largest sector of the Ghanaian economy. The sector comprises crops, livestock, fisheries, agro forestry and non-traditional commodities.

The Chapter presents analysis of data on the agricultural activities in the District, with the main focus on households in agriculture and type of farming activities.

 Households in Agriculture

The 2010 Population and Housing Census has reported that there are 18,577 households in the District out of which 12,063 (64.9%) engage in agriculture. The majority of the farmers (73.5%) live in the rural areas while 26.5 percent live in urban areas. As shown in Table 7.1, nearly all (94.7%) households engaged in agricultural activities (11,424) engage in crop farming whilst livestock rearing (4,267) constitute 3.5 percent. Majority of the farmers who engage in all the types of agricultural activities in the District live in the rural areas except those into fish farming where 59.3 percent live in the urban areas.

Households by agricultural activities and locality

 Type of livestock and other animals reared

There are 187,507 livestock in the District with 6,689 keepers and an average animal per keeper of 28 (Table 7.2). Chicken rearing constitutes the highest representing 36.1 percent, livestock and (cattle) rearing is the second highest representing 32.3 percent, with an average number of animals per keeper of 24 and 60 respectively.

The proportion of sheep keepers to guinea fowl keepers is 666 and 298 with averages of 17 and 32 respectively. The livestock type or activities with the least or no keepers are snail, marine fishing, ostrich and dove rearing

 Distribution of livestock, other animals and keepers