1. THE ESTABLISHMENT OF CITRUS JUICE INDUSTRY
IN GHANA: A SUCCESS STORY OF LINKAGE
BETWEEN RESEARCH, EXTENSION, PEASANT
FARMERS, NGO AND USAID, AND INDUSTRY.
By: Prof J. K. Osei

2. The Early Attempts to Establish Citrus
Juice Industry in Ghana
• British Sailors developed Vitamin C
deficiencies on long voyages.
There was the need to find cure for British
soldiers who developed Vitamin C deficiencies
on long voyages in the early part of the 20th
century.
• It was discovered at that time that by drinking
lime juice, the disorder could be cured.

3. The Early Attempts to Establish Citrus
Juice Industry in Ghana cont’d
• The British government made attempts to grow
lime in its colonies to supply lime juice to the
sailors.
• This led to the introduction of the Mexican lime
Citrus aurantifolia to Ghana specifically in the
Asebu area in the Central Region around 1900.
• By 1928, lime production had reached its peak in
the Central Region and as a result, the Emil El
Rose Citrus Factory was established at Asuansi to
process lime juice for the sailors.

4. The Collapse of the Mexican Lime
Industry at Asebu
• Because of the lack of research information, the
Mexican lime was grown from seeds. The
resulting seedlings were very sensitive to the
tristeza virus disease. The symptoms of the
disease were stunted growth, loss of yield and
premature death of the lime trees.
• Eventually, by 1948 the disease had wiped out
the lime trees planted by farmers and the
industry collapsed for lack of lime fruits to
process.

5. Attempts to Re-Establish the Industry
by the Colonial Government
• Other citrus varieties including sweet
oranges, lemons, tangerines and grape fruits
were introduced from other parts of the world
by the colonial government and established in a
museum at Asuansi.
• From the Asuansi museum, citrus particularly
sweet oranges spread to other parts in Ghana
especially the cocoa growing areas where the soil
and climatic conditions are conducive to the
growth of citrus.

6. Attempts to Re-Establish the Industry
by the Colonial Government cont’d
• However, farmers never grew citrus on large
scale as cocoa because they realised that
when grown from seeds, the sweet oranges
grew tall, became thorny and the fruits were
susceptible to fruit flies and the trees died
prematurely from gummosis disease.

7. Contribution from University Research
• In 1957, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, granted funds to the
University of Ghana to establish the Agriculture
Research Centre, Kade to investigate among other
things, the successful cultivation of plantation crops
and fruit tree crops including citrus.
• From 1960 onwards, research was initiated at the
Agricultural Research Centre Kade (ARC-Kade) to select
suitable rootstocks which conferred vigour, earliness
and tolerance to tristeza virus and the gummosis
diseases. Results summarized in ARC-Kade annual
reports from 1968 to 1970 (Opoku, 1971) showed that:

8. Contribution from University Research
cont’d
• 1. Budding citrus spp on rough lemon, Cleopatra
mandarin, Lake Tangelo, or rangphur lime rootstocks
resulted in early fruiting within three years as
compared to the seven years required for trees raised
from seeds.
• 2. Fruits of the Washington navel sweet orange on
rough lemon rootstock granulated during the dry
season from December to February, but were juicy
when Cleopatra mandarin was used as rootstock.
However, the yield of Washington navel sweet orange
on Cleopatra rootstock was low.

9. Contribution from University Research
cont’d
• 3. Good quality fruits were obtained when
Rangphur lime was used as rootstock, but the
growth of most citrus cultivars on Rangphur lime
was stunted, due to the exocortis virus disease
which had been transmitted through budding.
• 4. From 1973 onwards, certified bud woods of
important citrus cultivars were imported By ARC,
Kade, from leading citrus producing countries for
compatibility and yield studies on rough lemon
and Cleopatra rootstocks. The table below shows
some of the results obtained.

10. The yield and maturity period of Citrus
Cultivars in Ghana
Cultivar
Origin
Harvesting
season
Late Valencia
Spain
February/March
Average
Yield
per tree * 100
fruits
9
Satsuna
(Mandarin)
Ponkan
(Mandarin)
Lake Tangelo
Japan
March/April
10
China
May/June
5
Florida
July
10
Washington
Brazil
(Navel Street)
Ovelleto
Sicily
Sweet Orange
Local
Sweet Local
Orange
August/September 4
August/September 6
October/January
7

11. Re-Establishment of the Citrus Juice
Industry in Ghana
• A solid foundation was laid for reestablishment of citrus juice industry with the
various citrus cultivars which made all yearround production of citrus possible.

12. The Late Valencia Sweet Orange
• In 1970, researchers at ARC-Kade decided to test the
suitability of the Late Valencia Sweet Orange as an offseason citrus variety.
• The results showed that:
– When harvested from November to January, the fruits of
the Late Valencia sweet orange cultivar were not as
palatable as the other sweet orange cultivars which were
fully mature at this time. Late Valencia sweet orange
cultivar was therefore not released to farmers, until it was
shown in 1987 to be the most profitable sweet orange
cultivar when grown as off-season cultivar, because the
fruits reached full maturity after mid-February when no
other citrus cultivar was in season (Osei, 1989).

13. The Late Valencia Sweet Orange cont’d
– Late Valencia sweet orange on rough lemon
established very well in a maize/cassava
intercropping system. By intercropping these food
crops with this sweet orange on rough lemon
rootstock, the traditional shifting cultivation in the
forest zone of the country could be converted to a
permanent cropping system

14. The extension of the cultivation of late
valencia sweet oranges to farmers in
Ghana
• The methods used to extend the cultivation of
the Late Valencia Sweet orange to the
Ghanaian farmer included the print and
electronic media, Public Lectures at Farmers’
Fora, Training Courses for Senior Extension
Officers of the Ministry of Agriculture, Training
of Unemployed Middle School Leavers in
Budding of Late Valencia on Rough Lemon and
Invitation to Government.

15. Interventions by ADRA- Ghana
• On 5th May, 1996, ARS, Kade and the Adventist
Development and Relief Agency (ADRA)-Ghana, a
non-governmental organization, signed an
agreement to execute a project on the integration
of the food farming system of some peasant
farmers in the Eastern Region of Ghana with the
Late Valencia sweet orange on rough lemon
rootstock. Under the agreement, ADRA-Ghana
contracted ARC-Kade to produce one hundred
and sixty thousand Late Valencia sweet orange on
rough lemon rootstock for distribution to small
holder farmers in Ghana.

16. Interventions by ADRA- Ghana
• From may 1996 to June 1998, 1,600 small
scale peasant farmers in Ghana were supplied
each with 100 seedlings under the project.
Funding for the project was provided by the
United States Agency for International
Development (USAID).

17. Interventions by ADRA- Ghana
• Ten years after the project, fresh oranges are available
in large quantities for fresh fruit consumption and for
processing. Several new citrus processing factories
have been established in the country. Notable among
the factories is “Pinora” at Asamankese about 20
kilometres from the research centre.
• Thus a result of collaboration and linkages between
research, extension, and NGO and USAID, the citrus
industry in Ghana has been revived. The socioeconomic benefit of these linkages is tremendous.

18. Lessons Learnt
• For successful agribusiness venture in Ghana, there
must be a sustained demand for the agricultural
product.
• There must be adequate information for the
sustainable economic production of the commodity in
large volumes.
• This information should be made availabal to growers.
• Credit facilities be made available for the cultivation of
the commodity.
• Factories then can be established to process the raw
materials into the finished products.