Agricultural Extension

The agricultural sector over sees fourteen operational areas which are all located in the South-West of the district. The sector also assists and trains 40 percent and 60 percent of the male and female agricultural population respectively in current farming techniques. Between 2004 and 2005, the number of farms visited increased from 2106 to 3212 with a corresponding increase in the number of farmers trained from 8,212 to 11273.

The extension training services covered techniques such as no filling of land, row planting methods, fertilizer application, correct spacing, number of seed per till, timely weeding, improved seeds and mode of weedicide application. (See table 1.18)

Livestock

Various livestock are reared in the district and these include cattle, sheep, goat, poultry, pig, grass-cutter and snail.  The table below illustrates livestock population in the district from 2002 - 2005.

Over the four year period under consideration, the population of the various livestock has increased tremendously. Notable among them are the snail and cattle population. Again, it is interesting to note that about 65 percent of the livestock population is found in the north of the district (Afram Plains) where there are vast grazing lands.

It is however regrettable that majority of these livestock are marketed outside the district in neighbouring districts such as Sekyere West, Asante Akim North, Kwahu North, Sene, Afram Plains District and others as a result of transportation problem. The sizes of the livestock that are actually marketed within the District are indicated in the (table 1.20) below in (kilograms) for the 2004 and 2005.

From the table it could be realized that apart from pork production which decreased from 125,20Qkg to 50,400kg, cattle and sheep production increased more than 50 percent in 2005

Crop Production

Principally, the major tree crops in the District are cocoa, citrus and oil palm. Other root and tuber crops cultivated are yam, cassava, cocoyam etc. Cereals cultivated are mainly maize and rice. (See Table 1.21).

Increased crop production  levels over the period was made possible due to farm demonstration activities by the directorate

Cocoa Spraying

The extension officers have also not neglected cocoa as an important cash crop in the district. Through the cocoa spraying exercise, large hectares of cocoa farms have been covered. (See table 1.23).

On cocoa, the hitech activities over the period were impressive. A total of 2,073 farmers were involved, and a total of 1,725 hectares of land (farms) was covered.

Post Harvest Losses

The agricultural sector in the district is confronted with a number of problems, including post harvest losses. Post harvest losses in the district are mainly caused by poor transportation network and lack of storage facilities. (See table 1.24). The resultant effect is that the farmers are heavily affected in terms of revenue loss.

From the table, it may be noted that maize, rice and citrus have the highest percentage post harvest loss of 30 percent, 10 percent and 10 percent respectively.