Agriculture

As the foundation of Ghana’s economy, agriculture employs more than half of the population and is a key focus for the country’s inclusive economic development agenda. Ghana has 13.6m ha of agricultural land, and cocoa and maize account for the largest areas planted, with 1.6m ha and 1m ha, respectively. Yet as the industrial and services sectors have strengthened in recent years, agriculture’s contribution to overall GDP has steadily declined, falling from 32% in 2009 to 22% in 2013. Moreover, the sector remains underdeveloped, with the majority of rural farmers (accounting for some 90% of all farming employment) lacking the proper techniques, inputs, financing and infrastructure, such as transport networks and irrigation and storage systems. New policy reforms, however, such as seed variation control and biosafety regulations, aim to both enhance yield quality and reduce waste.

This chapter contains an interview with Anthony Pile, Founder and CEO, Blue Skies.