The Farming Year

The savanna crop that made the market famous — traders come from the north and from four neighbouring countries for it. The new-yam season is the year's big event; the main dig then runs on through the dry months.

Sowing:

Dec–Feb · mounds raised and planted in the dry months into the new year

Harvest:

Aug–Dec · new yam arrives from about July–August; the main harvest runs through the dry season

The buffer. Planted with the rains and lifted whenever it is needed, from about a year on — so it is on the floor all year and steadies a household through a poor maize season.

Sowing:

Apr–Jun · planted with the rains

Harvest:

Jan–Dec · lifted as needed, roughly a year after planting — harvested when you need it

A forest crop from the south of the junction. The stools carry bunches through the year, heaviest in the wet months — one of the crops that makes Techiman a place where forest and savanna produce trade side by side.

Harvest:

Jan–Dec · bunches cut year-round, heaviest in the wetter months

The crop that shows the calendar most sharply. Ghana grows little tomato from about December to May, so through the first half of the year Techiman's traders cross to Burkina Faso to fill the gap — the lean season when prices climb hardest. The local rain-fed crop then comes in from about May.

Harvest:

May–Aug · the local rain-fed crop; peak supply begins about May

Sowing:

Mar–Apr · rain-fed planting with the first rains

A savanna crop from the north of the junction, sown with the rains and gathered as they end — traded here dried, alongside the maize and yam it is often rotated with.

Sowing:

May–Jun · sown with the rains

Harvest:

Sept–Oct · lifted and dried as the rains end