A tuber for Ghanaian development: Influence of agro-processing activities in the lives and livelihoods of cassava farmers.

 "To Ghana and the Ghanaian people. Thank you for making me feel like home".  After doing a 4 month fieldwork in Ghana I successfully defended my thesis. The thesis has now been published in Lund University LUP and can be found under the following link: https://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/search/publication/9095319 

The study explores the influence of agro-processing activities in the lives and livelihoods of cassava farmers in five communities located in four districts in the Ashanti and Volta regions in Ghana. The qualitative research is done by performing thirty-six semi-structured interviews to farmers and stakeholders along the cassava value chain. The research concludes that agro-processing activities allowed cassava farmers to generate additional income and later invest it to improve their lives and livelihoods and those of their household members. Specifically, the investigation indicated that the additional income was predominantly generated through two channels: First, benefiting all farmers, through the influence of agro-processing activities in the use of new farming technologies, farm-size increases, and improved marketing opportunities. Second, benefiting those farmers who were processing cassava, through the additional income obtained from selling agro-processed products as opposed to raw cassava. In addition, the study found that the social development area in which farmers invested the most was education, followed by health, and infrastructure. As well, the research revealed that agro-processing activities positively influenced increasing opportunities for women and development of partnerships. 

In my thesis acknowledgements, apart from Ghana, I present my gratitude:

        -To God, for your continuous source of strength to face and overcome the challenges of life. 

        -To my father, for showing me through example that education and hard-work are the pillars

          of a man. I love you. 

        -To my mother, for giving me all her love and consequently giving me the capacity to love. 

          I adore you. 

        -To my program director, for your trust to make me part of the Ghana research project. 

        -To my thesis supervisor, for your academic advice, but most importantly for your spiritual 

          support and friendship. 

        -To the direct contributors of this research. Especially to Martin, Magnus, Ibrahim, Prince,                      Godwin, Eric, Jacob, Dela, Sylvester, Promise, Bempah, Elvis, Francis, Israel, and all the                     interviewees that took part of the study. Thank you for sharing your knowledge with me. 

        -To all the ones that have been by my side during this academic journey. 

        -To the Amazonian natives who domesticated cassava and to all the cassava farmers around 

          the world. Thank you for your hard-work and for providing food for us. 

"There was a time when there was no cassava on earth. Kashiri (the moon) had plenty of cassava on his farm. One day he came down to earth and fell in love with an indigenous Matsigenka woman. He wanted to marry her and thus he provided humans with a gift: the cassava stem." 

Cassava legend from the Matsigenka indigenous people from Peru. 

 Source: compiled by Arias (2003), translated by author