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Plantains are one of Ghana’s main staples with about 4.7 million metric tons annual production capacity.

But the crop has in recent times seen production declines owing primarily to poor quality planting material, pests and diseases, erratic rain supply, and other labour challenges.

“When we purchase the plantain suckers, we chop them into smaller pieces, then we dig a hole to plant them and cover it up. That is how we plant it,” John Asamoah, a farmer, explains how he has cultivated his plantain in the past years, but has failed to yield bountiful harvests.

He is losing his investment as he only watches his 10-acre plantain farms die out gradually with poor harvests.

“When it starts to germinate, it’s not good, and we’re unsure of how to handle it. Since we lack knowledge about it, we just place it in the hole as it is. It's also quite challenging to grow because the soil is very tough. If you plant 600 suckers, at least 100 are likely to spoil,” he added.

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