Despite the absence of explicit arguments against the promotion of agriculture, some economic scholars and policymakers harbor doubts regarding agriculture’s ability to drive growth and transformation, particularly in Africa. However, the recent sharp rise in global food prices underscores the need to improve our understanding of both the role of agriculture and the ways to support agriculture. In this regard, we view CAADP as a good opportunity to support African policymakers in their effort to promote agricultural growth and redirect financial resources to the sector.[...] Read more
The concept of the agricultural flagship programme - Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) - reveals a policy that has been introduced by the Government of Ghana to address the declining growth of the country’s agricultural sector[...] Read more
On 05/09/20
The Ghana Irrigation Development Authority (GIDA) has compiled information on formal irrigation schemes in the country. Unfortunately, there is almost no information on informal irrigation. Though there exist quite a number of small scale farmers involved in the informal irrigation, using various systems that involve some permanent structures, very little data exist on their operations.[...] Read more
Sometimes it is difficult to pinpoint when a great story begins. But when the British Colonial Governor Sir William B. Griffith in the late 1890s started a botanical garden to distribute cocoa seedlings to farmers, he was seeding what would become the most important crop to Ghana. By this initiative, he exalted Tetteh Quarshie, the man credited to have brought cocoa to Ghana from Fernando Po (now Equatorial Guinea). The first documented shipment of cocoa from the then Gold Coast was made in 1893. By 1911, Ghana was the world’s leading exporter, supplying the then emerging European chocolate market.[...] Read more