Sweet Potato Value Chain Analysis Reveals Opportunities for Increased Income and Food Security in Northern Ghana

Table 3

Characteristics of sweet potato production operations (% responding).

Production operations	Description	Northern region	Upper East region	Total
Average size of farm (ha)	0.5	69.7	35.0	52.5
	1	18.5	25.0	21.7
	2	10.9	28.3	19.6
	3	0.8	5.8	3.3
	4 and above	—	5.8	2.9
Source of seed for planting	Own seed	36.1	44	40
	Recycled improved seed	15	30	22.5
	Certified seed	6	9	7.5
	From MoFA, CIP, SARI, or NGOs	42.9	17	30
Number of years seed has been recycled (years)	1-2	69.7	20.0	50.8
	3–5	18.5	30.0	23.3
	6–10	5.9	29.2	15.4
	>10	5.9	20.8	10.4
Average quantity harvested (bags: ~105 kg)	1–3	84.9	8.3	46.7
	4–6	5.0	20.8	12.9
	7–10	6.7	21.7	14.2
	>10	3.4	49.2	26.3
Proportion of harvested produce consumed by household	Up to 25%	41.0	5.0	22.9
	Up to 50%	13.4	69.2	41.3
	Up to 75%	30.1	21.7	26.3
	Everything is consumed	15.1	4.2	9.6
Proportion of household income from sweet potato production	10%	75.6	20.8	17.9
	20%	11.8	40.0	30.8
	40%	11.8	19.2	22.1
	60%	0.8	17.5	18.3
	80%	—	2.5	9.6
	100%			1.3
How long sweet potato is available for consumption at home (weeks)	1-2	48.7	14.2	31.7
	3-4	42.0	25.8	33.3
	5–8	8.4	35.6	21.7
	9–12	1.7	25.0	13.3
Length of storage after harvest (weeks)	I do not store at all	25.2	9.2	17.5
	1-2	28.6	9.2	18.8
	3-4	38.7	28.3	33.3
	>4	7.6	53.3	30.4
Method of storage	Temporal shed	27.7	16.7	22.5
	Underground pit	41.1	31.7	35.8
	Heap with intermittent watering	31.1	51.7	41.7

Note. Full list of acronyms has been provided at the tail end of this manuscript.