Addressing Ghana’s agriculture challenges

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Ghana’s increasing population, changing weather patterns and global food price hikes are squeezing the budget of the less well-off. Although agricultural production has grown at over 5% annually since 2001, this has largely been achieved by bringing new land into cultivation. Yield gaps between Ghana’s productivity levels, compared to what is achievable, are far too high.

Ghana's cocoa farmers have enjoyed higher incomes for the current cropping season and interventions are underway to improve soil fertility.

Adopting a business-as-usual approach to agriculture in Ghana is really not an option if long-term and sustainable food security is to be achieved. But already, Ghana commits almost 10% of its annual budget to improving agriculture, placing it top of the list of investors in the sector in Africa. Added to this, Ghana’s spending on agricultural research and development more than doubled between 2002 and 2008.>>>continue

Food Security in Ghana

Over 1.2 million Ghanaians, representing five per cent of the population, are food insecure. About 34 per cent of this population can be found in the Upper West with 15 per cent in the Upper East and 10 per cent in the Northern regions. Mr Stephen Yakubu, Deputy Northern Regional Director of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) disclosed this when he delivered a paper on “Food Security in Northern Ghana: challenges and prospects” at a workshop by the Northern Ghana Food Security Resilience Project (NGFSRP) in Tamale on Thursday. >>> more