Ghana is the only country in Sub-Saharan Africa likely to meet both the Millennium Development Goals of halving the proportion of people in poverty, and the proportion of people who are hungry, by 2015.
In a study of Ghana’s story IFPRI experts have called the country ‘a prime candidate to champion economic transformation in Africa.’ They state that Ghana should grab the ‘unique opportunity for the front-running African countries to set examples on how to achieve economic transformation and prosperity on the continent’.
But there is a side to this narrative that deserves even more attention: Ghana’s quiet and steady agricultural revolution.
According to the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), Ghana’s agricultural sector has grown by an average of about 5% per year during the past 25 years, making it one of the world’s top performers in agricultural growth. Further successes include:
- Between 1990 and 2004, Ghana cut hunger levels by 75%.
- Undernourishment went down to 8% by 2003, from 34% in 1991.
- Child malnutrition declined, with the proportion of infants underweight falling from 30% in 1988 to 17% in 2008.
- Political and economic reforms reduced the percentage of the population living in poverty from 52% in 1991-92 to 28.5% in 2005-06.
- Rural poverty fell from 64% to 40% between 1981 and 2007.
- By 2005/07, staple food production per person was more than 80% higher than it was in 1981/83. [Read more…]
One Billion Hungry: Can We Feed the World? 