The Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers were introduced in the 19th century to solve the problems created by the SAP; it was a poverty reduction framework committed and devoted to poverty reduction at all levels. This strategy was also imperative if Ghana wanted to benefit from the Highly Indebted Poor Countries Fund—concessional credits and grants of about US$3.7 billion over a 20-year period. The PRSP was based on five principles—it had to be owned by the country, should be result-oriented, holistic in nature, participatory and have long term effects; these principles were arrived at as a result of earlier criticisms of the SAP. Other agricultural strategies like the Accelerated Agricultural Growth Development Strategy—to reduce poverty and improve human welfare and the International Fund for Agricultural Development initiatives in the Northern Region had to be made consistent with the PRSPs. The PRSP was required to outline its anti-poverty strategy and explain how donor funding—HIPC would be used to reduce poverty.
Critics such as Domfeh and Bawole , Car rand Whitfield have termed the Ghana PRSP as old wine in a new bottle, where an aid regime has been promoted and encouraged instead of a trade regime which can boost private investment and growth in the agricultural sector. Over the last decade,Ghana has met the Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme targets, but regional disparities still exist in poverty levels and agricultural productivity.To boost investments and productivity,rolling bench intra-African trade and regional agri-food value chains, the Economic Community of West African States has also put in place regional agricultural policies of which Ghana is a signatory, but these policies seem not be solving the agricultural problems in the country. This article will show what we have been doing wrong and are still doing wrong and propose what we need to do to move forward. The evolving agricultural system in the Northern region will be assessed with emphasis on changes due to the socio-economic and political interaction of different material and social cultures from pre to post colonial era.This work is framed around the notion of entangled history adopted from the works of Weiss , where the interactions of different “social spaces” are studied to understand production, distribution and consumption patterns which overlap over time. This essay will examine the history of the Dagomba people who make up the Northern Region and throw some light on how their political and socio-economic environment shaped their agricultural practices and system.
It also explains how the agricultural activities of the Dagomba people have been shaped by the different land and agricultural policies enacted and carried out in pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial times. Finally, why vegetable agriculture has become an integral economic activity of the Dagomba people especially with increasing urbanisation in the city of Tamale. Blench and Dendo estimated the surface area of the Northern Region as70,384 sq.km. It is the largest region in Ghana. It comprises about 41% of the total land area in Ghana with headquarters in the Tamale Metropolis. Its population density is noted to be the lowest in the country. Rain-fed agriculture is predominant in this region as opposed to irrigated farming which even though present in the country, takes place in less than 2% of the total cultivated area . The primary economic activity of the Dagomba’s is agriculture, which employs more than 70% of the active population.Most importantly about 90.5% of households in the Northern region practice crop farming compared to other forms of agriculture .Interviews with key informants revealed that the Dagbon people have always relied on their farming skills as a source of income to provide and sustain their families. When the colonial administrators settled in Tamale as their head quarters,few Dagomba’s were interested in administrative jobs like clerks and teachers.As in the Dagomba culture, a man was defined according to his capacity to provide food for his family from his field, and white collar jobs were considered“activities of the weak”. Tamale has become an urban agriculturel city, with weaknesses not so different from the general agricultural system, but there are opportunities which if harnessed would make the system more sustainable and inclusive.