BrongAhafo is a Region rich in good soils and climatic conditions. The two main vegetation types in the Region, moist semi-deciduous forest and the guinea savannah woodland are conducive for the production of a variety of cash and food crops. The majority of the economically active populations in the region are engaged in agriculture. This chapter discusses the households engaged in agricultural activities in the Region.

Households in agriculture

 Household size and locality of residence

 There are 336,097 agricultural households in the region representing 13.4 percent of the total agricultural households in the country. More than two-thirds (68.5%) of households in the Region are engaged in agriculture. The average agricultural household size is 5.2. This is slightly less than the Regional average household size (5.3) is higher than that of urban agricultural households (36.2%). Rural agricultural households have relatively larger household sizes than those of urban localities. The average rural agricultural household size is 5.3 while that of the urban is 5.1. Dormaa East (4.5) and Nkoranza North (4.5) have the smallest average household sizes in urban localities. Pru (6.4) has the largest average agricultural household in urban localities. Apart from Pru, five other Districts, including AtebubuAmantin (5.9) and two Municipality, Kintampo North (5.9) and Wenchi (5.3) have average agricultural household sizes higher than the regional average. Dormaa East, Tano North and Jaman South Districts together with Berekum, Nkoranza North, Dormaa and Sunyani Municipalities have more than one-third of agricultural households with average size of three members or lower. Dormaa East and Tano North Districts have more than 13 percent of single member agricultural households being single members   

Household Members in Farming

There are 654,079 household members in farming in the Region of which 52.7 percent are males. Table 11.2 shows the distribution of household members in farming in the Region and Districts by sex and locality of residence. There are more males in farming than females. Seventeen Districts and Municipalities have higher percentage of males in farming than females. Dormaa East, Sunyani West, Jaman South and Jaman North Districts, and Berekum Municipal are the five Districts with with higher percentage of females than males in farming.

Berekum Municipal, Jaman South and Jaman North districts have higher percentages of higher percentage of females in farming than males in both urban and rural localities. These three are the only Districts with higher percentage of female farmers than males in rural localities. Six other Districts and one Municipal have more male farmers in rural localities than females. These are Asunafo South, Dormaa East, Tano North, Sunyani West, Tain Districts and Dormaa Municipal. The remaining 13 Districts have a higher percentage of male farmers than females in both rural and urban localities.

Age of Household Head

About 11.5 percent of the heads are below 30 years of age, 46 percent are between 30 years and 50 years of age, 26 percent between 50 years and 65 years of age, and the remaining 16.5 percent are 65 years and older. Jaman South and AtebubuAmantin Districts, Wenchi and Kintampo North Municipalities have higher proportions of very young agricultural household heads. For age (15-19) years, the four have proportions from 1.6 percent for Jaman South to 1.4 percent for AtebubuAmantin and Kintampo North; for the age group 20-24 years, Jaman South (4.4%) again has the highest proportion. Asunafo South (9.3%) has the highest proportion for age (25-29) years. For the age group 15-29 years, Kintampo North Municipality (10.8%) rank lowest among the five Districts with the lowest percentage of agricultural household heads. AtebubuAmantin (14.8%) has the highest proportion for age group 15-29 years followed by Wenchi Municipality (14.1%) and Jaman South (14.1%).

In the urban areas, the proportion of the heads aged below 30 years is 12.2 percent. The corresponding percentages for those in the age group30-49 years are 47.7 percent, 24.5 percent for those between 50 and 65 years and 15.7 percent for those 65 years and older. The proportion of the heads aged below 30 years in the rural communities is 12.7 percent; that for those aged between 30 to 49 years is 46.2 percent and 25.4 percent for those between 50 to 64 years. The remaining 15.3 percent are for those aged 65 years or older.

Types of Farming

 Household Farming Activity

The activities are crop farming, tree growing, livestock rearing and fish farming. The 336,097 agricultural households in the region are engaged in various farming activities. Households can be engaged in one or more activity. Crop farming is predominant among agricultural households (96.6%). The second most prominent activity is livestock rearing (34.4%). Slightly more than one thousand households are engaged in tree growing. Fish farming employs about 0.1 percent of agricultural households. As expected, the percentage of rural households is higher than that of urban households engaged in farming activities. The percentages of agricultural households are also higher than those of female-headed households for all farming activities.

Dormaa and Techiman have the highest number of agricultural households. Dormaa East District and Sunyani Municipality have the least number of agricultural households in all farming activities. Though male-headed agricultural households are more than female-headed households in all districts, Pru District has a wide variation between males and females. The District has more than 80 percent of male-headed households among both crop farming and livestock rearing agricultural households.

 Relatively more female-headed agricultural households are found in Jaman South, Berekum Municipality and Jaman North where more than 40 percent agricultural household heads are female. Jaman South again has more than 40 percent female-headed households in livestock rearing. Though fish farming is a relatively small agricultural activity in the Region, it is worth noting that Tain District has a substantial number of female-headed households (42.9%) engaged in that activity.