The changes introduced in the agricultural sector focused on soils and water conservation and also mixed farming—where animal husbandry was integrated with agriculture with the use of more manure. Experiments were carried out on existing crops found in this region like cotton, shea butter, grains, ground nut and also on livestock. Many reasons account for the failure of the different agricultural and livestock experiments. Each venture was treated as a new idea without reference to other past experiences. There was little or no coordination between the different organisations implementing these projects over time and space, leading to a waste of time, money and resources. The aim of the colonial council in reviving agriculture and exporting raw materials like cotton to Europe,livestock to the South did not yield any fruits. In this example, we see how governmental interventions with the aim to improve the livelihood of the masses as stated in , does not succeed, due to different interest and agendas by the actors .
The brief consideration of tobacco, dawadawa, rice, and shea butter as cash crops was problematic due to numerous factors. First, a good transport system was absent. Secondly, most the crops were not suited for mechanisation. Thirdly there was a lack of technical expertise to fix any machine that broke down. The British colonial government invested a lot in the experimentation with cotton as a possible cash crop. Animal traction was introduced especially for this particular cash crop farming practice with ox-carts fabricated from wrecked cars, as the “main implement used is a heavy ridger pulled by paired oxen” . These technologies were introduced first to chiefs, with the idea was that if the chiefs adopted these technologies,hydroponic nft channel and then the people will do same. Chiefs, in this case, were used by the colonial administrators as an Obligatory Passage Point to get the people enrolled in the project. New farm technologies were introduced to the chiefs by the colonists who believed that if chiefs adopted these technologies,other farmers would be convinced to adopt them too. This process of enrolment is a process through which an actor convinces other actors to join his ideological network, by using discourses or intermediaries which the other actors accept.
Even though the people did not adopt many technologies elaborated above, intercropping of maize and millet fertilised with manure collected from animal kraals close to the compound was adopted by many farmers .Sutton also discusses the large-scale groundnut farms opened in 1955under the Gonja Development Company Scheme. The thinking behind this project was to acquire the land, plant, get farmers to weed it and when crops are sold, a third of the profit given to farmers. This project invested in the use of chemical fertilisers, tractors, and the crop rotation method. About 4000 acres of land was acquired, and expectations were to get roughly 400 farmers to settle and work on this farm. This project ended at the experimental phase with only 15 permanent farmers on site. Reasons for this failed project were that the farmers did not own the project, and found it taxing to relocate to this project farms to settle and farm.
Apart from the inter-cropping example above, farmers resisted all other governmental interventions by the colonial government to change their agricultural system, in this way reshaping the governance system in place by not legalising their power and authority in controlling the agricultural system .Irrigated dry season or market gardening on small protected plots was introduced by the Society of Missionaries of Africa who grew vegetables around water bodies first in the upper East region as stated by . The vegetables cultivated were mostly exotic that is, vegetables foreign to the localdiet. Vegetable cultivation increased in the city as the colonial administrator seach had gardens, where he or she cultivated vegetables and flowers for culinary and aesthetic purposes, especially in the Gold Coast . In the North, vegetables were grown in compound and bush farms; these vegetables were grown in the wet season and dried for culinary use in the dry season.