Agricultural Issues
Parliament Adopts Report on Poverty Reduction Strategy
GhanaWeb
Parliament on Tuesday adopted a report of the Committee on Poverty Reduction Strategy on the Coordinated Programme of Economic and Social Development Policies for 2010-2016. Dubbed "An Agenda For Shared Growth and Accelerated Development for a Better Ghana", it outlines the various policy measures the government will pursue in the stated period to transform the economy from its over-dependence on primary raw materials to a diversified prosperous 21st century industrialized middle-income country. [more]
Ghana’s Middle Income Status Faces Challenges - Report
Ghana News Agency
Though Ghana has been described as a middle income country, she is not yet a middle income society due to the numerous serious developmental challenges, Mrs. Ruby Sandhu-Rojon, United Nations Resident Coordinator, said in Accra on Tuesday. She explained that despite the progress made in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), there were still a lot more to be done regarding MDGs 4, 5 and sanitation aspect of MDG 7, continue high dependence on subsistence agriculture and inequality between the north and the south. [more]
Ghana: Northern Regions to Account for Two-Thirds of Country's Poor By 2015
AllAfrica.com
Even though Ghana has sustained economic growth in the past two decades, this has largely bypassed the northern regions, widening further the development gap between the south and the north, a new ActionAid report has said. According to the report, in 2005/2006, 63 percent of the population in the northern regions lived in poverty compared to 20 percent in the rest of Ghana. On Ghana's current growth path, national poverty will fall from 28 percent to 16 percent in 2015, but in the north from 63 percent to 49 percent. [more]
Ghana Won't Be Hard Hit By Global Food Price Hikes – Rencap
Ghana Business News
In the year 2008, the world was hit by a food crisis that sent food prices high, and in 2011, there is another major food price hike that is expected to hit some countries hard, most of these in sub-Sahara Africa (SSA), but Ghana and Nigeria will be least hit, says Renaissance Capital (RenCap) in a report copied to ghanabusinessnews.com. [more]
Farmers Plant Their Hopes on Cell Phones
Daily Nation
Current hunger and famine being experienced is not unique to Kenya. African agricultural output stands at a meager 56 per cent of the world’s average. Lack of access to vital agricultural information, as well as training and advice on topics such as pests and diseases, weather and proven farming practices has been cited as part of the causes of the current problems. Access to mobile phones is growing dramatically even among those at the base of the economic pyramid, providing a new and powerful channel of communication and the ability to link previously excluded rural communities to up–to-date information. [more]
Gender Issues
US to Assist Smallholders’ Farmers to Escape Poverty
Ghana News Agency
Over 860,000 vulnerable women, children and family members, mostly smallholder farmers, would be assisted over the next five years to improve upon their agriculture production to help fight hunger and poverty. The programme is under the new US government intervention in agriculture to enhance food security in Northern Ghana. The programme, which is led by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) leverages the strengths of multilateral institutions, civil society and the private sector to assist 18 million vulnerable women, children and family members. It would also reach over 324,000 children, improving their nutrition and preventing stunting and child mortality. [more]