2011 Volume 6 Issue 2 Pages 230-237
Many cultivars of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) are grown worldwide, including those cultivated by most smallholder farmers in Ghana as a cash crop. Ghana’s agricultural production is highly dependent on rainfed and its marketing systems are not efficient for the smallholder farmer who grows tomato and other staple crops. Better marketing and production strategies are necessary for the smallholder farmers to improve income levels. Linear programming and parametric linear programming models were applied to develop optimum income-maximizing crop allocation strategies for smallholder farmers. Optimum crop allocation on a 2.5-ha farm was 1.25 ha (50%) tomatoes, 0.75 ha (30%) maize, and 0.50 ha (20%) cassava. Optimum income levels were estimated using land and labor constraints, variable cost conditions, and production data for these crops in three single local markets and a combination of the markets. Theoretically, income could be maximized by selling only to Ashiaman Market compared with the other two market, but in practice, farmers need to ship produce to all three markets because of transactional cost which are incurred through transportation. Increasing the farm size from 2.5 ha to 8.64 ha for the selected crops increased income in both the single and combined markets even after accounting for increased labor inputs. Considering these findings, Government role is considered necessary in developing and strengthening Farmer Base Organization in value chain concept for tomato production and establish market information centre in the District.
