54 Participatory Rural Appraisal of Constraints to Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) Production in Northern Ghana D. Oppong-Sekyere 1 *, R. Akromah 2 , M.M. Akpalu 1 , A.D. Ninfaa 1 , E.Y. Nyamah 4 , M.M. Braimah 3 and A-R. S.Salifu 1 1 Bolgatanga Polytechnic, Department of Ecological Agriculture, P. O. Box 767, Bolgatanga, 2 KNUST-Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, Kumasi, Ghana 3 School of Engineering, Department of Agricultural Engineering, Bolgatanga Polytechnic, P.O. Box 767, Bolgatanga, Upper East Region, Ghana 4 School of Management and Economics, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, China *Corresponding author ABSTRACT Participatory Rural Appraisal (P.R.A.) study of groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) production was conducted in a total of thirty (30) districts/communities sampled from the three Northern Regions of Ghana; Upper East, Upper West and Northern, involving ten (10) randomly selected, predominant groundnut growing districts in each case. Thirty (30) focal group discussions as well as 600 individual key informants (20 from each district/community), were interviewed using both open and close-ended questionnaires. The simple scoring and ranking technique was used to rank farmers constraints to groundnut production.The overall goalof the project was to assess the main constraints to the production of groundnuts in Northern Ghana. Data obtained from the questionnaire was analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Scientists (SPSS version 17.0) and Microsoft Excel, and summarized into percentages and means, while simple scoring and ranking techniques were used to assess farmers production constraints. Standard errors were used to separate means where necessary.Results obtained from the study indicated that more males (451; 75.17%) were involved in groundnut production in the three Northern Regions. Majority (531; 88.50%) of the farmers was married with household size 5 9 (281; 46.83%) and did not have any formal education (448; 74.67%). Majority of the groundnut farmers have been in the farming business for 10 years and more (408; 68.00%), Inherited their farm lands (430; 71.67%), did not belong to any FBOs (498; 83.00%). Farmers waited for three rainfall events before land preparation (270; 45%) and planting on generally a sandy soil (345; 57.5%), that is about 1/3 rd ploughing depth (390; 65.00%). Drought was the major weather condition that affected groundnut production (66.83%). Majority of the farmers used hoe as farm equipment (582; 97%). Land preparation began in April (585; 97.5%) and Period of Planting was June/July (347; 57.83). Average land cultivated by farmers was 1 2 acres (276; 46%) China local groundnut variety was the most cultivated (76.5%, 99.5%, 96.5%) in all three regions (N/R, U/E and U/W respectively). Reason for choice of variety was high yielding (73.33%) and ease of harvesting and early maturing (46.5%). Average maturity of groundnut was China ; (2-3 months, 394; 65.67%), Late variety ( Agric ; 4-5 months). Majority had total farm size of 1 4 acres (64.83%) and weeding was done manually [559; 93.17% and majority (77.17%) did not apply fertilizer on their farms]. Most common disease reported on farmers groundnut farms was Early Leaf Spot (Caused by Cercospora arachidicola) 240; 40.00%. Yield of groundnut was 2 3 bags/acre for Shelled (218; 36.33%) and 4 5bags/acre for Unshelled (252; 42.00%). Relay of information was mostly by colleague farmers (39.33%) and MoFA (31.33%), NGOs (13.83%). Constraints to the production of groundnuts were ranked by farmers as drought (4.43), yield (3.53), pests (3.50) and diseases (3.23). Scientific investigation into the suitability of some of the popular landraces of groundnut in Northern Ghana for higher yield might be necessary to ensure food security in the regions. KEYWORDS Drought, Early leaf spot, Groundnut, landraces, P.R.A., Questionnaire, Yield ISSN: 2347-3215 Volume 3 Number 10 (October-2015) pp. 54-76 www.ijcrar.com