Coastal Region Of Ghana Research Articles

A Comparison of Levelised Cost of Energy of Different Energy Sources for Irrigated Shallot Farming in Some Coastal Regions of Ghana

A Comparison of Levelised Cost of Energy of Different Energy Sources for Irrigated Shallot Farming in Some Coastal Regions of Ghana

The processing, preparation, and cooking practices of small fish among poor Ghanaian households: An exploratory qualitative study

Small fish are an important part of the diet in Ghana, but malnutrition rates remain high. The nutritional quality of fish consumed in Ghana may be affected by food processing and cooking practices, but the extent to which these processes are practiced among poor Ghanaian households along the coastal belt is unknown. This study explored how poor Ghanaian households process, prepare, and cook meals containing small fish. This exploratory qualitative study used Attride-Stirling thematic network analysis. Respondents were purposively sampled from fishing communities in the coastal regions of Ghana. One-on-one interviews were performed by trained field assistants, audio recorded and videotaped, and transcribed for further data analysis. The most common small fish species identified were anchovies and herrings. Anchovies were fried and eaten whole. Herrings were eaten either smoked or fresh; for fresh herring, the head, fins, and viscera were removed before boiling. Herrings were smoked with the head and viscera; however, both the head and viscera were removed before being added to boiling soup and were not consumed. Anchovies were fried for 10 min, and herrings were boiled for 15–30 min. Processing methods and further meal preparation depend on the small fish species. Nutrient composition and contribution of small fish depend on the processing method, preparation method, and what tissues are eaten. Thus, these results will be of importance for sampling schemes for food composition tables and for the calculation of nutrient intake from small fish.

Risk of anaemia among women engaged in biomass-based fish smoking as their primary livelihood in the central region of Ghana: a comparative cross-sectional study

BackgroundFish smoking using biomass fuel is an important livelihood for women living in the coastal regions of Ghana and may contribute to anaemia risk. We assessed whether women who smoke fish as their primary livelihood are at increased risk of anaemia compared to women in other livelihoods in the Central Region of Ghana.MethodsWe conducted a comparative cross-sectional study of 330 randomly selected adult women (18–49 years) whose primary livelihood was either fish smoking (FSL) involving the burning of biomass fuel (n = 175) or other livelihoods (OL) not involving burning of firewood (n = 155). Data on participants’ recent diet were collected from a single, quantitative 24-h dietary recall and qualitative 7-day food frequency questionnaire of animal-source food (ASF) consumption. We further assessed participants’ haemoglobin concentration using the Urit 12 Hemocue system. We compared total iron intakes, the proportion of dietary iron from animal and plant sources, mean haemoglobin concentrations, and anaemia prevalence between FSL and OL women.ResultsFish was the most frequently consumed ASF by both groups of women. Although OL women consumed more diverse ASFs in the past week compared with the FSL women (3.4 ± 1.2 vs. 2.7 ± 1.3; p < 0.001), the contribution of ASFs to total iron intake in the past day was greater for the FSL women (49.5% vs. 44.0%; p = 0.030). Estimated total dietary iron intake in the past day was generally low (5.2 ± 4.7 mg) and did not differ by group. The unadjusted prevalence of anaemia was 32 and 27.1% among the FSL and OL women, respectively (p = 0.33). After covariates adjustment, the FSL women had statistically higher anaemia prevalence (36.4% vs. 20.5%; p = 0.032) and 80% greater risk of being anemic (RR: 1.8; 95% CI: 1.1, 3.0) than the OL women.ConclusionWomen who use biomass fuel to smoke fish as their primary livelihood had an increased risk of anaemia. Furthermore, the average 24-h dietary iron intake among both the FSL and OL women was below their daily iron requirement. Interventions to enhance women’s dietary iron intake and reduce their livelihood related biomass smoke exposure may be warranted in this population.

Antibiotics utilization and farmers' knowledge of its effects on soil ecosystem in the coastal drylands of Ghana.

BackgroundThere is paucity of information on antibiotics utilization amongst farmers, factors associated with administration of antibiotics and farmers’ knowledge of the effects of antibiotics on the soil ecosystem in Ghana.MethodsA cross sectional quantitative survey across three coastal regions of Ghana was undertaken amongst poultry and livestock farmers. Six hundred respondents were selected from five districts each across the three regions. Pretested and structured questionnaire were used to collect data through face to face interview. Data were summarized using descriptive statistics and regression analysis. Factors associated with antibiotic administration were determined using binary multiple logistic regression at p ≤ 0.05.ResultsOut of the 600 farmers, 95% administered antibiotics and 84% bought antibiotics over-the-counter without prescription. Approximately 9% of antibiotic administration was carried out by veterinary officers, and the remaining, 91% based on farmer’s experience. Approximately 93% had access to antibiotics without any difficulty. Withdrawal period was always observed by only 16% of farmers. Majority (74%) of farmers never had education on antibiotics and none of the farmers screened manure for the antibiotic residuals. Years of farming, income status, level of education of farmers, type of animal kept, access to extension services, registration with farmers’ association, employing veterinary services, location of farm, system of production, education on antibiotics and access to antibiotics positively and significantly predicted the administration of antibiotics by farmers. Majority of farmers had inadequate knowledge of the effects of antibiotics on soil ecosystem with mean score ranging between 2.87±0.60 and 2.98 ± 0.7 on a scale of 5.0.ConclusionThe study exposed the poor practices regarding antibiotic use and also inadequate knowledge on its effect on the soil ecosystem amongst farmers in Ghana. This calls for development of strategies to increase awareness on antibiotics because its misuse can negatively impact human, animals, environment and impact food security.

The Tale of a Disappearing Lagoon: A Habitat Mapping and Ecological Assessment of Fosu Lagoon, Ghana

Coastal regions of Ghana are primarily engaged in sea and lagoon fishing. Like many lagoons in Ghana, Fosu lagoon is a major source of livelihood for its surrounding communities. However, the lagoon and its associated marsh vegetation is under serious threat from human-induced interference. Due to this, the lagoon is considered as one of the most polluted lagoons in Ghana. Also, studies reveal that a major conservation challenge is the lack of inventory for the lagoon’s associated vegetation. Hence, the research was to map and assess the lagoon’s habitat and identify threats to the lagoon. In achieving the research objectives, remote sensing and GIS technique were used to effectively map the lagoon and the catchment area. The result indicated that the Fosu lagoon is characterized by a massive decline in lagoon size and the vegetation cover. Thus, the standing water has declined by 50.2 acres from 1970 to 2017 to physical development and weeds. Also, it was evident in the result that the lagoon’s vegetation is now fragmented into six various vegetation types and the weeds in the lagoon make approximately one-third of the lagoon’s vegetation cover. Also, adding to the threat of the lagoon were high levels of plastic waste and metal pollution. Hence, if current trend continues, the possibility of further degradation is very high. The main impact of this research was to provide evidence to the gradual disappearance of the Fosu lagoon.

Improving education delivery through community – school partnership

PurposeOne of the most debated policy discourses that have engaged the attention of countries as well as the donor community is the varied pathways in improving the delivery of education through decentralisation and community participation. A key policy expectation is that through the active participation of the community, education quality and related outcomes would improve. The purpose of this paper is to explore the policy and practices of community and school partnership and the extent to which the “social contract” between communities and schools has been executed. It also explores the challenges they face as they engage in the governance of schools and how such engagement shapes education delivery.Design/methodology/approachThis research was guided by a semi-structured interview schedule focused on two selected basic (i.e. primary and junior secondary) schools and their communities within a Municipality in a Coastal Region of Ghana as a single case for the study. Data were read thoroughly to identify common themes which included the multiple perspectives of participation, teacher management, conflicts and tensions, the role of community elites in school-community partnerships, capacity constraints, parental roles, and issues about the “social contract” among others.FindingsDrawing on case study data, the paper argues that although decentralisation policies aim at strengthening local democracy and participation, they do not fully consider the conditions under which this might be achieved. Furthermore, in community–school partnership discourses, the impression has often times been given that the policy of education decentralisation is about what communities could do to support schools located within them. The fact of it being a two-way relationship is often not stressed, thus, diminishing the role the school plays or could play in the life of communities.Originality/valueThe study reinforced the point that the relationship was a two-way one based on reciprocity, and that it was the fulfilment of the expectations of both parties that shaped the relationship between them and determined the nature of communities’ participation in the governance of its schools. Anything to the contrary thus weakens the relationship.

Are small-scale freshwater aquaculture farms in coastal areas of Ghana economically profitable?

Marine fish stocks in Ghana are in serious decline, while local demand for fish has outstripped supply due to a combination of factors led by over-fishing. To sustain per capita consumption of fish, the Government of Ghana has positioned aquaculture as one of its top priorities. Aquaculture is projected to meet the deficit in the country’s fish requirements. However, there is paucity of information on the profitability of smallholder aquaculture farming practices to guide planning and investments in the sector. This study was carried out on 40 farms across all four coastal regions of Ghana namely Western, Central, Greater Accra, and Volta Regions to help address critical bottlenecks facing smallholder fish farming practices. Three profitability metrics, i.e., benefit-cost ratio (BCR), payback period (PBP), and return on investment (ROI) were used to assess profitability. Regression analysis between investments and revenue outputs revealed cost factors that were significant and positively influencing revenue generation from aquaculture farms. Average BCR for smallholder aquaculture farms for a 5-year period was estimated at 1.14. When disaggregated, tilapia profitability was higher (BCR = 1.16) compared to catfish (BCR = 1.11) but not significant. The results showed that both tilapia and catfish farming had positive returns on investment. However, in the long term, profitability from catfish was higher (ROI = 0.74) than tilapia farming (ROI = 0.73) but not significantly different. Tilapia farms recorded shorter payback time of 7 years when compared to catfish farms estimated at 9 years. This study calls for stronger commitment of government and stakeholders to address the issues of high cost of fish feed and access to fish fingerlings and markets, while improving specific on-farm management practices.

Characterization of water chemistry in some communities of the Lower Tano river basin, Ghana, West Africa

The chemistry of surface water and groundwater in some communities of the Lower Tano river basin, which is a coastal region of Ghana, has been characterized. Based on the obtained analytical results, 80% of the surface water (rivers), 100% of the hand dug wells and 96% of the boreholes in the study area are generally fresh and soft. Silicate weathering is the main hydrogeochemical processes contributing to the Na+ ions and HCO3− ions in the groundwater of the basin. Gibbs diagram used to identify the mechanisms controlling the water chemistry of the basin reveals that rock weathering resulting from silicate and carbonate minerals controls majority of the surface water and groundwater chemistry in the basin. Piper trilinear plots and Chadha’s diagram, used in this study, indicate that ion exchange processes, reverse ion exchange and rock weathering are the main hydrogeochemical processes controlling the groundwater resources in the basin. Stable isotopic (δ2H and δ18O) composition measurements obtained from the study indicate that 30% of the surface water (rivers and lagoon) are less depleted and subjected to evaporation, while the remaining 70% is highly depleted with negligible to no evaporation. Also, the groundwater in the basin is likely recharged by direct infiltration of rainfall from the local rains of the basin together with other sources.

Akyekyema Bour and Apreku Rock Shelters: Lithics, Pottery and Society at the Forest’s Edge During the Second Millennium cal. ad, Kwahu Plateau, Ghana

Re-excavation of Akyekyema Bour and Apreku rock shelters on the Kwahu Plateau, Ghana, has revealed the existence of distinctive lithic assemblages comprising both microliths and macroliths, with associated radiocarbon dates spanning the early to late second millennium ad. The typo-technological attributes of the stone tools produced at these sites remain relatively constant until the disappearance of this technology during the seventeenth century ad, or later. Lithic technology also persists at widely distributed open-air sites and rock shelters across West Africa that date within the last two millennia. The Kwahu macrolithic assemblages are unique on the plateau and in the wider region, as sites with comparable lithic technology supposedly date no later than the mid-first millennium ad. From the later first millennium ad, profound socioeconomic and technological changes began to reshape the societies of the forested and coastal region of Ghana and beyond, with, for example, the emergence of complex agrarian societies and development of long-distance trade networks, e.g., the Atlantic trade. Yet, the localised variability and continuity evident in the lithic and pottery assemblage(s) at the study sites, and Bosumpra Cave, demonstrate that aspects of tradition, belief and identity also persisted, thus enabling insight into aspects of society, economy, technology, and the history of the Akan-speaking people within the forested zone during the second millennium ad.

The onset and cessation of seasonal rainfall over Africa

AbstractVariation in the seasonal cycle of African rainfall is of key importance for agriculture. Here an objective method of determining the timing of onset and cessation is, for the first time, extended to the whole of Africa. The method is applied to five observational data sets and the ERA‐Interim reanalysis. Compatibility with known physical drivers of African rainfall, consistency with indigenous methods, and generally strong agreement between satellite‐based rainfall data sets confirm that the method is capturing the correct seasonal progression of African rainfall. The biannual rainfall regime is correctly identified over the coastal region of Ghana and the Ivory Coast. However, the ERA‐Interim reanalysis exhibits timing biases over areas with two rainy seasons, and both ERA‐Interim and the ARCv2 observational data set exhibit some inconsistent deviations over West Africa. The method can be used to analyze both seasonal‐interannual variability and long‐term change. Over East Africa, we find that failure of the rains and subsequent humanitarian disaster is associated with shorter as well as weaker rainy seasons, e.g., on average the long rains were 11 days shorter in 2011. Cessation of the short rains over this region is 7 days later in El Niño and 5 days earlier in La Niña years with only a small change in onset date. The methodology described in this paper is applicable to multiple data sets and to large regions, including those that experience multiple rainy seasons. As such, it provides a means for investigating variability and change in the seasonal cycle over the whole of Africa.

Assessment of wind power generation along the coast of Ghana

This study examined the wind energy potential and the economic viability of using wind turbine for electricity generation in selected locations along the coastal region of Ghana. The two-parameter Weibull probability density function was employed to analyze the wind speed data obtained from the Ghana Energy Commission. The energy output and unit cost of electricity generated from medium size commercial wind turbine models with rated powers ranging from 50kW to 250kW were determined. It was found that the wind resource along the coastal region of Ghana can be classified into Class 2 or less wind resource which indicate that this resource in this area is marginally suitable for large scale wind energy development or suitable for small scale applications and be useful as part of hybrid energy system. It was further observed that wind turbine with designed cut-in wind speed of less than 3m/s and moderate rated wind speed between 9 and 11m/s is more suitable for wind energy development along the coastal region of Ghana. Based on the selected wind turbine and assumptions used in this study, it was estimated that the unit cost of electricity varied between 0.0695 GH¢/kWh and 0.2817 GH¢/kWh.

Accumulation profile and seasonal variations of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in bivalves Crassostrea tulipa (oysters) and Anadara senilis (mussels) at three different aquatic habitats in two seasons in Ghana

Research has shown that some polychlorinated biphenyl congeners degrade slowly in the environment and build up in the food chain, causing a wide range of possible adverse effects to humans. In order to ascertain the nature of the situation in Ghana, polychlorinated biphenyls congener residues in Crassostrea tulipa (oysters) and Anadara senilis (mussels) at Narkwa, Ada and Anyanui in the coastal region of Ghana were determined. At Narkwa, both bivalves’ species were collected; at Ada only Anadara senilis were collected while at Anyanui, only Crassotrea tulipa were collected. The number of each bivalve species collected from each site was 80 (n=80), making up a total of 320 for the dry and the wet seasons. The PCBs were extracted with (1:1) hexane-acetone mixture and analyzed with a gas chromatogram equipped with 65Ni electron capture detector, model CP 3800 using the mixed PCBs standard of the ICES 7. Total PCBs in the bivalves ranged from 5.55 to 6.37μg/kg wet weight in mussels and 2.95–11.41μg/kg wet weight in oysters, respectively. The composition of the PCB homologues in the bivalves was dominated by tri-, hepta- and hexa-PCBs in descending order. Risk assessments conducted on the samples indicated that edible bivalves from Narkwa, Ada and Anyanui in Ghana might pose some health risk to the consumers.

Importance of infectious bovine reproductive diseases: an example from Ghana

REPRODUCTIVE diseases of cattle are of great economic importance to the rural sector of developing countries, particularly in Africa (Obese and others 1999, Fekadu and others 2007). Although infectious conditions...

Geologic structure and evolution of the Keta basin, Ghana, West Africa

The Keta basin, covering approximately 2,200 km 2 , lies along the east coast of Ghana. It is one of the chains of Mesozoic and Tertiary sedimentary basins in the Gulf of Guinea. The basin is filled with 870 m of Paleozoic marine and nonmarine sediments that were deposited in an interior basin that once occupied the present site of the Keta basin. These sediments are unconformably overlain by 3,600 m of Mesozoic-Tertiary deposits. Three major post-Paleozoic depositional cycles are recognized in the basin. Jurassic dolerite sill from well samples in the basin are correlative with dolerite exposures in other coastal regions of Ghana and West Africa. Radiometric ages of these dolerites (162 to 192 m.y.) agree with the presumed initial time of separation of Africa and South America. Bouguer gravity anomalies show that the Keta basin is dominated by two major northeast-trending anomalies, with an axial high of 36 mgal to the north and a low of −15 mgal to the south, where the sediments are thickest. The prominent northeast-southwest orientation of the basinal structure, faults, and gravity anomalies coincide with the orientation of the Romanche Fracture Zone. The structure exerts considerable influence on sediment accumulation in the basin. Seismic data from the adjacent continental shelf and gravity data from the basin suggest that the Romanche fracture extends into the West African continent as the Fenyi-Yakoe fault. The Keta basin is a graben that is modified by basement faulting.

“Pan African Orogeny” in the Coastal Region of Ghana

SEVERAL authors1–4 have advocated that in West Africa the 500–600 m.y. “Pan African Orogeny”5 was a complete orogenic cycle and not merely a thermal event that caused isotopic changes. It has been postulated that in Ghana3,4 this cycle began when the Birrimian rocks, which had been involved in a previous orogeny between 1,700 and 2,000 m.y. ago, became the basement to a sedimentary cover sequence comprising the Togo (Akwapimian, Atacorian) and Buem Formations and lower parts of the Voltaian Group (Fig. 1) which are in part laterally equivalent to one another and in which there is a southeastward transition from miogeosynclinal to eugeosynclinal facies. The cover and basement to the south-east of a line running approximately between Accra and Niamey (inset of Fig. 1) were then involved in the thermotectonic phase of the “Pan African Orogeny” while that to the north-west remained essentially undisturbed as part of the West African craton. Within the orogenic zone the cover was strongly folded and thrust on southeasterly dipping planes, was lightly metamorphosed, and perhaps locally subjected to granitization6,7 and to granite intrusion, while the Birrimian basement was reactivated to give the unit known as the Dahomeyan.

A new Genus and Species of Clupeoid Fish from West Africa

Specimens of a new clupeoid fish from the coastal regions of Ghana, Dahomey and Nigeria are described under the name Laeviscutella dekimpei gen. et sp. nov. The species is also recorded from the Ivory Coast, Gabon and Congo. In its possession of poorly developed and unkeeled pre-pelvic scutes, L. dekimpei resembles the dussumieriid Gilchristella aestuarius (Gilchrist). But it is distinguished from the latter by its possession of post-pelvic scutes ; however, the post-pelvic scutes are unique in that they lack ascending arms. The genus Laeviscutella thus bridges the gap between the clupeid subfamily Pellonulinae and the dussumieriid tribe Ehiravini of the subfamily Spratelloidinae. Problems relating to the relationship of Laeviscutella to other clupeoids are discussed, but for the present the existing classification is accepted, and Laeviscutella is placed with its presumed closest relative, Gilchristella, in the tribe Ehiravini.