In this West African nation of 23 million people (including a labor force of more than 9 million), at least 55% of the working population derives its living from the agriculture sector, most often as small farmers. Of the country's gross domestic product (GDP)- $14.6 billion in 2007 - more than 35% comes from agriculture.
Cocoa, of course, is the agricultural commodity at the heart of Ghana's economy, accounting for around two-thirds of the total value of Ghana's agricultural exports and at least one-third of all Ghanaian exports. "Ghana is Cocoa and Cocoa is Ghana" is the motto pronounced by Ghana's powerful and ably run Cocoa Board, which oversees the production, control of quality, and purchase of all cocoa grown by more than 1.5 million farmers. Along with gold and timber, cocoa is one of the Ghana's three celebrated "traditional exports." Ghana's other major agriculture products for export include pineapples and refined sugar, which have both quadrupled in their export value during this decade, as well as palm oil, bananas, shea nuts, cashews, coffee, peanuts, and coconuts.
In addition to cash crops, Ghanaian farmers grow food for their own people. Low productivity on these farms is endemic, however, because high-yielding, state-certified hybrid seed is rarely used, irrigation is remarkably underused, and poor storage facilities and infrastructure contribute to high rates of post-harvest loss. Although Ghana has a domestic poultry industry, it suffers greatly, its farmers contend, from foreign imports of poultry meat costing far less than a price they can match.
In Ghana, as in much of Africa, little value-added processing takes place prior to export, although the government is striving to improve this situation. There has been some growth in recent years in the country's industrial activities involving local crops, including increased processing of cocoa, tomatoes, and nuts; canning and juice operations; and brewing for local consumption and export. Although trade policy supports duty-free import of processing equipment, companies that would seek to process agricultural goods generally are constrained by costs and availability of needed imports, such as high-quality packaging materials that are not made domestically, as well as the high cost of electricity, which drives up the cost of production. They are further set back by the unreliability of their suppliers, bottlenecks at the port, and the uneven quality of the product they seek to enter into the processing or manufacturing stream.
The past two centuries demonstrate that greater prosperity in a country translates to fewer people engaged in agriculture and smaller share of GDP derived from agriculture. Over the coming generations, this experience is likely to be realized in Ghana. Growth in agricultural productivity will increase incomes and improve health, permitting more Ghanaians to turn to skilled labor, entrepreneurship, and other sectors as the source of their livelihoods. But even as fewer Ghanaians work directly in agriculture, the sector can serve as a much stronger and more efficient driver of growth. To the extent that there are ongoing reforms in conditions for "doing business" in the agriculture sector - that is, for the pursuit of economic activity arising chiefly from domestic production of food and other agricultural resources in Ghana - the country will experience greater productivity, entrepreneurial opportunity, and international trade.
