Assessing the impact of off-season vegetable farming on farmers in the Savelugu Municipality in the Northern Region of Ghana

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to assess the impact of off-season vegetable farming on farmers in the Savelugu Municipality in the Northern Region. The study population consisted of respondents who were into off-season vegetable farming in the Savelugu Municipality in five selected communities in the Municipality. Purposive sampling technique was used for a sample size of fifty (50) off season farmers in the selected communities. Interview guide and questionnaire were used to solicit data for the study. The data were analyse in a step-by-step thematic analysis that included reading the transcriptions, coding, reviewing and naming themes. Thereafter, descriptive statistics namely frequency, means, and percentages were used to analyze the data in MS-Excel. Off-Season vegetable production technology can be practiced by maintaining or adjusting planting time, selecting of varieties, creating artificial and controlled environment through use of tunnels, polytene house, glass houses, hot bed etc. Moreso, Off-Season vegetable helps to get income showed the highest rank with the overall mean score of 1. Nearly all the trained farmers said that their main constraint was the high incidence of pests and diseases. It is evident that off-season cultivation is profitable and has significant impact on the consumption expenditure and food security status of the farmers. The policy implication of this study is that providing improved and modern agricultural inputs to off season farmers is essential in agriculture for rural development.