The Challenge of Achieving Food Security During Turbulent Times: The Case of the Republic of Ghana

Ghana achieved lower middle-income country status by 2011. However, its growth path in the previous decades did not lay the foundations for the economic transformation of Ghanaian agriculture and therefore its overall economy. It relied primarily on extractive and non-renewable resources (gold and oil) and cocoa exports, and it did not diversify. While much progress was made in poverty reduction, pervasive low productivity and job informality continue to condemn millions to poverty, vulnerability, and therefore to chronic food insecurity. Despite its abundant natural resource endowment, and despite decades of growth, Ghana is again on the brink. The harsh assault of the COVID-19 pandemic laid bare its structural weaknesses. Ghana must again recover: it urgently seeks an Extended Credit Facility of about $3 billion and a restructuring of its debt, to enable it ride out of its current crisis and pursue its vision of ‘Ghana Beyond Aid.’ Achieving this vision requires Ghana to reverse its long-term neglect of agriculture, a key sector still mired in low productivity, extensive poverty, and vulnerability. The challenge is investing in agriculture at a time of daunting difficulties in that funds are tight, the global economy is turbulent, and climate change is a constant stressor. However, the existence of transformative possibilities through the technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), and access to a vast, unified regional market made possible by the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) offer growth opportunities. Without transforming its agriculture, the vision of a food secure ‘Ghana Beyond Aid’ will remain a distant