Cover_Rebuilding West Africas Food Potential

352 Rebuilding West Africa’s food potential

individual smallholder farmers, processors and marketers were interviewed in nine communities in the

district, using structured questionnaires and interview guides/checklists. The study also held detailed

focused discussions with individual producers, processors and marketers, as well as with one large-scale

oil palm estate and one palm kernel processor in the district: GOPDC (Kwae) and WAML Industries

Limited (Nkwantanang), respectively. See Figure 2 for the detailed locations of smallholders interviewed

for the study.

Figure 2. Map of Ghana Showing the Study Area in the Oil Palm Growing Zone

Source: MofA (2010)

Additional information was gained through a review of literature and existing policy documents and

the analysis of secondary information.

Data from the survey questionnaires were edited, coded and entered into the Statistical Package for

Social Science (SPSS) and analysed quantitatively. Data from observations and interview recordings were

analysed using qualitative data analysis methods (content analyses).

3. Significance of oil palm in Ghana and West Africa

3.1 Importance of palm oil and derivative products as sources

of vegetable oils for consumers and industries

The oil palm is the second most important tree crop in the Ghanaian economy after cocoa. It is

therefore one of the leading cash crops in the rural economy in the forest belt of Ghana. Oil palm,

an essential oilseed, produces many products both for domestic consumption and as inputs for the

industrial sector. The structure of the palm oil industry in Ghana has been shaped by the presence of

two different markets: home consumption and industrial use in domestic manufacturing. As a result,

Ghana’s industry has two sub-sectors which are largely separate.