agrl_innovations_in_ssa.pdf?utm_content=buffercb41d&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter

Lessons learned for scaling up. The strong commitment of all stakeholders – donors, national
partners, NGOs, Government, exporters, importers, individual farmers and research institutes
– has played an important role in the success achieved in the pineapple industry. Linkage with
export markets has clearly been a driving factor. However the emergence of large-scale farmers
and processors has made them the major beneficiaries at the expense of smallholder farmers.
Meeting this challenge will require additional support to raise their production levels.
Ghana’s growing cassava sector
This case study demonstrates the
development of a traditional subsistence
crop – cassava – as a commercial crop
that is processed to provide industrial
products including starch, flour and
adhesives. Popular commercial foods
based on traditional processes have
also been successfully marketed. These
developments required public sector-led
multiple stakeholders involving the
private sector and farmer organisations,
which has resulted in greatly expanded areas of improved cassava varieties, processing
factories and improved livelihoods.
Initial context. Ghana, in common with other West African countries, depends heavily on
agriculture for national and household food security and employment. Cassava is grown
throughout the country, as a sole or mixed crop, either primary or a subsidiary. The greatest
concentration is in the South and Central Regions that are responsible for nearly 80 percent
of total production. For many years Ghana focused on rapid industrialisation, favouring grain
production on large public farms, with little research for smallholder farmers and root crops.
However, cassava production has grown rapidly over the past two decades, benefiting from
new varieties and processing techniques developed in Nigeria.
Popular cassava products include fufu, gari, agbelima, agbelikaklo and yakeyake. In all these
products, the roots undergo a fermentation process when they are immersed in water for
several days. In the case of fufu the peeled or unpeeled roots are ‘watered’ for some days, then
dried in the sun and pounded into flour. The dried fragments possess a distinctive taste due to
the fermentation that takes place during watering. The preparation of gari or atieké, involves
fresh roots being peeled, grated and then left to ferment before the pulp is finally cooked and
eaten. Gari is the most popular product because of its long shelf life. Available records show
that formerly Ghana had three active and one potential manufacturers, who produced cassava
starch, flour and flour-based paperboard adhesive.
70 Agricultural Innovation in Sub-Saharan Africa