Published in Scientific Papers. Series "Management, Economic Engineering in Agriculture and rural development", Vol. 24 ISSUE 3
Written by Enock Asante OSEI, Gordana KRANJAC-BERISAVLJEVIC, Thomas Apusiga ADONGO

While most commercial pineapple farms in Ghana cultivate under rainfed conditions, few supplement the rains with irrigation, which is a good agronomic practice. In this study, pineapple fruit yield and quality (brix and weight loss) were assessed in rainfed and irrigated fields in Ghana’s Coastal Savannah agroecological zone in 2022 production period at Bomarts Farms. Forty (40) matured pineapple fruits from a 50 × 50 m plot were sampled under drip and rainfed conditions each. Weight of fruits were in the range of 609 g and 1,524 g inclusively. The average least fruit weight for drip-irrigated and rainfed fields were 652 g and 609 g, respectively. The variation of fruits weight under both conditions was not significant (p-value = 0.815). Generally, the weight loss was high in fruits from irrigated (drip) fields during the storage period. The brix for drip-irrigated pineapple was lower (12.8 0Bx, 15.6 0Bx and 19.8 0Bx) than pineapple cultivated under rainfed conditions (13 0Bx, 16 0Bx, 21 0Bx). Annual rainfall in the study area (840.7 mm) compared to requirement (1,000 mm) for pineapple plants poses a challenge to year-round production, and presents an opportunity for farmers to adopt good agronomic practices to sustain production in the coming years.

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