Adapting oil palm best management practices to Ghana: opportunities for production intensification.

Smaller yields in Western Australia (WA), Australia, are partly the result of sub-optimal climate conditions and poor management practices. Water stress is the main yield-determining factor outside management control in WA. In order to guide government policy makers and investors, it is essential to know where the most suitable conditions for the expansion of oil palm production in WA exists. Using Ghana as a case study, this paper describes a framework for evaluating areas that are both suitable and available for oil palm production based upon land suitability evaluation methods and geographical information system techniques. The suitability assessment shows that highly fragmented suitable areas for oil palm production in Ghana are limiting the expansion of large-scale plantings. Therefore, a feasible strategy for expansion of smallholder production is needed, provided there are enough and efficient milling facilities to process the fruit. Some recommendations are given for sustainable development of the oil palm sector in Ghana