Indigenous knowledge and economic production: The food crop cultivation, preservation and storage methods of a West African community

This paper examines specific cultivation, preservation and storage techniques for some selected staple crops in the food farming community of Ayirebi, near Akyem Oda in southeastern Ghana. The traditional subsistence methods of Ayirebi farming households are well adapted to the social and geographical environments of the region. The long-term future of developing African communities may well lie in building up thriving rural communities producing the food needed by the wider population. However, before this can be achieved, the particular food cultivation strategies of local communities need to be understood. Micro-level studies such as this one will provide specific data vital to formulating and implementing a general agenda for national agricultural and economic development.