Pathways of Farmers Innovation, A Case Study of Pineapple Farmers in the Nsawam Municipal Assembly of Ghana

Agricultural innovations systems are continuously evolving hence it is imperative to understand ways through which farmers innovate in developing country context. This study explores ways through which farmers innovate taking into account farmers belonging to farmer groups that received assistance in the form of training and financial credit from the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) Ghana programme financed by the United States of America government. The study examined pineapple farmers in the Nsawam Municipal Assembly (NMA) of Ghana. The study employed a qualitative approach. This approach involved the use of Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and key Informant Interviews (KIIs). Both groups of farmers innovate through experimentation, through training received from NGOs and government agencies, through observation, discussions, accidental discoveries and influence from big commercial farms. The key challenge to innovation for both categories of farmers was access to adequate financial credit to allow for more rigorous innovations. It can be concluded that MCA assisted group had better information to ways of innovating than the non-MCA assisted groups.