FOREWORD
This document, Agriculture in Ghana: Facts and Figures (2016), has been prepared by the Statistics Research and Information Directorate (SRID) of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA). It is the 25 th edition of an annual series that commenced in 1991. There is a growing recognition that for any impactful and sustained growth and development to be achieved, in any sphere of endeavor, there is the need to have access to timely and good quality data/statistics. For instance, governments’ sound policy strategies, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation are predicated on the existence of good quality data. Various institutions, organizations, researchers, among others, also need timely, reliable and relevant data to guide their effective decision making process. Agriculture has long been recognized, in particular, by developing economies as the critical sector that could help achieve the much needed global goal of poverty reduction, in a much more sustainable way. For this to happen, however, countries require reliable, relevant and accurate statistics to adequately inform policy direction and indeed the decision-making process. In response to the need for good quality agricultural statistics to support the decision-making processes of both the public and private sector, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, acting through the SRID, initiated the annual production of the Facts and Figures document. It seeks to serve as a quick reference book for various category of users by providing salient features of the Ghanaian agriculture in figures, with focus on crops (including cocoa), livestock and fisheries sub-sectors, of the economy, as well as food commodity and input prices. Inputs into the document are derived from two sources; primary (e.g. through surveys conducted by SRID) and secondary (e.g. through provision of data by other public and private institutions). Access to the secondary source has often come with some difficulty due, in part, to some data providers’ lack of appreciation of the use to which such data is put. This notwithstanding, the need for agricultural statistics has been growing, over time, with user needs becoming increasingly varied and complex. As part of efforts to improve primary data collection and analysis, the SRID has been collaborating with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) to strengthen the agricultural statistics system through the implementation of the Ghana Agricultural Production Survey (GAPS). The GAPS seeks to enhance the quality and quantity of statistics generated by SRID. The Ministry intends to continue with the publication of this document to provide quality, consistent, and timely information on the agricultural sector for the formulation of sound development policies and plans to improve the efficiency of food production and distribution, thereby raising productivity, incomes and ultimately enhancing the livelihood of the Ghanaian farmer. It is therefore, hoped that this document will be widely circulated and the information therein utilized, to help accelerate the growth and development of agriculture in Ghana.