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PROJECT TOPIC: GROWTH, YIELD AND CONSUMER ACCEPTANCE OF SWEET PEPPER (Capsicum annuum L) AS INFLUENCED BY OPEN FIELD AND GREENHOUSE PRODUCTION SYSTEMS

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CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the study

Sweet pepper (Capsicum annum L.) belongs to the family Solanaceae, which is an important group of vegetables grown extensively and also widely cultivated in almost every country of the world (Channabasavanna and Setty, 2000). It thrives best in warm climate, where frost is not a problem during the growing seasons. In general, it requires temperatures ranging from 25-35 °C (Olalla and Valero, 1994). The sweet pepper of commerce also known as Bell pepper (Sinnadurai 1992), is one of the most varied and widely used foods in the world; it originated in Mexico and Central America regions and Christopher Columbus encountered it in 1493 (Kelley and Boyhan 2009). Sweet pepper is the world’s second most important vegetable after tomato (Anon, 1989). It is one of the most important vegetable grown in other parts of sub-humid and semi-arid tropics (Aliyu, 2000)

FAO (1992) reported that, 10 million metric tons of fresh peppers were produced on 1.1million hectares of land which ranked pepper in the middle range of vegetables in terms of popularity. In 2007, over 26 million metric tons of pepper was  produced globally (U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, 2008a). China ranked first, producing more than 50% of the world’s pepper, while the United States (U.S.) ranked sixth with about 855,000 metric tons produce (U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, 2008a).

The fruits of sweet pepper are harvested either at green mature stage or at colouring stage and are a very good source of vitamin A and C and other nutrients having great demand in big cities and other urban areas of the country. One medium green bell pepper can provide up to 8 percent of the recommended daily allowance of Vitamin A, 180 percent of Vitamin C, 2 percent of calcium and 2 percent of iron (Kelley and Boyhan, 2009). Sweet pepper contributes substantially to our diet, it is a good source of vitamins A, C (More than that obtained from tomato), E, B1, B2, and D (Muhamman and Auwalu, 2009). A phenolic compound called capsaicin is responsible for the pungency in peppers. Pepper is grown as an annual crop due to its sensitivity to frost and is actually herbaceous perennial and will survive and yield for several years in tropical climates (Peet, 1995; Kelley and Boyhan, 2009).

According to Norman (1992), the growing of sweet pepper in West Africa is confined to urban centers but recently large scale or commercial productions has been undertaken under irrigation in the rural areas. It is very vulnerable to frost and grows poorly at temperatures between 5 and 15 °C (Bosland & Votava, 1999). The optimum temperature range for sweet pepper growth is 20 to 25 °C. There are several factors that influence the growth and yield of pepper, some of which include temperature, relative humidity, day length, photoperiod etc. Along with other factors which affect the per unit area production like nutrition, cultivar, growing system and soil fertility, plant density has its significance (Agarwal et al., 2007). Plant densities and arrangements in the open field strongly decide the utilization of intercepted solar radiation mainly due to leaf area index.

It is therefore imperative to note that green pepper in Ghana is suited for most of the ecological zones with good climatic and edaphic parameters to support it growth in the

open-field cultivations whereas greenhouse technologies enable the cultivation of a large number of species in a specific geographic area. In a controlled environment, climatic conditions are optimal for certain species, regardless of the external environment (FAO 2013). Greenhouses increase crop yields by as much as four to ten times as plants grown under open field conditions; the quality of the product is normally higher than open field and the dependency on chemicals is drastically reduced. The main reasons for increased yields lie in the nature of the growing environment as well as the genetics of some greenhouse varieties. Cultivation in the open field also tend to be much easier and less costly hence production of fresh vegetables by numerous people in this system of production. In Israel, for instance, research is usually carried out in fully climate controlled greenhouse Greenhouses have been utilized in Europe, U.S.A, Canada and several other countries for many decades for improved yields (Wiltshire, 2007) and this can also be incorporated into our environment.

In agriculture, quality determination of produce is based on a multitude of features (Dull, 1986): flavour (sweetness, acidity); appearance (colour, size, shape, blemishes, glossiness); and texture (firmness, mouth feel). These features may be influenced by the system of production since crops are exposed to varied external environmental conditions.

There are many vegetable crops including pepper that are adapted in all parts of West Africa of which Ghana is no exception. Pepper in Ghana, for instance, is grown in all the ecological zones of the country; coastal savanna, rain forest up to the guinea savanna zones in the open field and green house technology is only applicable in the research

stations and the few well established farms have adopted for production of various vegetables. For each of these systems of production there are little or no records to ascertain the growth, yield and preference or the choice acceptable by the consumer.


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