Cover_Rebuilding West Africas Food Potential

Chapter 11. Oil palm industry growth in Africa: a value chain and smallholders’ study for Ghana 367

Box 1. A Smallholder “Large-scale” Producer at Pramkese

In detailed discussion, one private farmer described a total oil palm farm size of 79 acres (consisting of

a total of 8 different farms), all fruiting. Currently the farmer harvests a total of 31 tonnes from his 79

acres each month (average productivity of 392.4 kg/acre or 0.4 tonnes/acre per month). See Table below.

The estimated cost of maintenance and harvesting/acre is GHC 170 per season.

Other crops cultivated by the farmer are citrus (2 acres) and cocoa (10 acres). The farmer compared the

estimated revenues from oil palm, citrus and cocoa. In a good season, he makes about GHC 1,200 from his

citrus farm at an estimated production cost of GHC 679/acre. For cocoa in the 2011 season, he harvested

30 bags/10 acres. The price per bag of cocoa was GHC 205 for gross revenue of GHC 6150.

For oil palm, on average, he estimates an income of GHC 23,250 (31 tonnes x GHC 150/tonne x 5 months

of good harvest). He provides the cost of establishment/acre of oil palm, cocoa and citrus as follows:

Monthly yield of farms

Farm size (Acres) Yield (in tonnes)

27 5

5 3

3 3

20 5

4 2

6 5

9 5

5 3

Total size: 79 Total yield: 31

Activity Cost (Oil palm) Cost (Citrus) Cocoa

Land clearing 30 30

Tree felling 15 15

Weed control3 30 (3 times a year) 30

Pegging 8 8

Digging/planting 8 8

Cost of chemical for spraying 10

Labor cost for spraying 30

Pruning 60

Harvesting 20/tonne 48

Transport 60

Cost of seedling 110 (110 seedlings)^150 (60 seedlings) 24 (120 seedlings, each costing 0.2)

Land leasing/5 years 500 500