Cotton yield to touch 50,000 tons with World Bank help

11 Jul '11

1 min read

Ghana's cotton output may shoot from the present 5,000 tons to 50,000 tons by end of the current year, said Ishac Diwan, Country Director of the World Bank, on the last day in his office.

He said that a significant improvement has been noted in the production of root crops in the country, during the past few years, but the same cannot be said about cotton. This, he said, is because farmers find it very difficult to obtain formal credit and required inputs to boost cotton production.

Considering this, he disclosed, the World Bank has extended a facility for cotton cultivators, which would encourage the rise in cotton output.

Mr Diwan also stated that the country's agricultural gross product has registered an average growth rate of 5.1 percent per annum since 1991 till now. This is reflective of the fact that Ghana's performance has remained better than other fast developing agricultural economies like China, Vietnam and Brazil.

Around 55 percent of the country's working population is engaged in agriculture in Ghana which continues to remain an agriculture-based economy, he said. Most of those engaged in agriculture are the below margin poor people residing in rural areas, he added.

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