Agricultural Value Chains
Even though the agriculture sector is contributing to a quarter of the national GDP, only 10 % of the workforce in the agricultural sector receives formal training. In order to boost vocational training opportunities, GSDI was commissioned to develop an Agricultural Technical and Vocational Education and Training (ATVET) approach for the three agricultural value chains cashew, mango and oil palm to develop occupational standards and competency-based training (CBT) courses. The cashew and oil palm value chains are being implemented in collaboration with ComCashew and Solidaridad respectively.
Oil Palm Value Chain
The cultivation of oil palm in Ghana is dominated by private small-scale farmers who cultivate about 80 % of the estimated total land area of 305, 758 hectares under oil palm cultivation. 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. The industrial sub-sector consists of medium and large-scale oil palm plantations and mills.
It is characterized by more efficient technology, economies of scale, higher productivity on farms (in terms of yields of oil palm bunches) and in mills (in terms of quantity of oil extracted), and by its better quality of crude palm oil as well as further refined palm oil products, which are sold to companies for use in manufacturing. The small-scale sub-sector consists of private smallholder oil palm cultivators, who largely sell their fruit bunches to small-scale mills or household (largely manual) processors. It is characterized by low-yielding oil palm variety, low productivity of farm and mill, and low quality crude palm oil which is sold in the village or at small town markets. However, the oil palm industry is faced with a number of challenges including issues on low productivity, yield, quality, equipment, and technology. A number of these challenges could be addressed through skills training.
GSDI III supports the development of occupational standards and competency-based training (CBT) courses for oil palm focus on the National Certificate I (NC I) and National Certificate II (NC II) in the National TVET Qualification Framework (NTVETQF).
