Agricultural Development

Agricultural development can be defined as; an improvement in all aspects or practices of agriculture that can lead to better yields or output. Green revolution also refers to the introduction of modern farming practices such as improve seeds, tractors, pesticides, weedicides among others into agriculture Institutional bottlenecks on the other hand refer to a set of long standing factors that militates against the development of agriculture overtime. It therefore clearly indicates that the development of agriculture is green revolutionary dependant; the institutional factors that hinder the total implementation of the green revolution agenda of agricultural development include the following; Cultural belief system and ideological orientation; the cultural practices, values, norms, and views of most Ghanaian communities are anti-modern and difficult to change. It is in this sense that most beliefs system is so rigid that any other practices seen contrary to them are mostly rejected. The Ghanaian beliefs such as constructions of mounds as a method of farming is seen as the best as against the use of tractors for ploughing the lands, to an extent that, though others can afford the services of tractors to plough their land, they rather claim that the use of tractor for ploughing distract the soil profile, hence reject it which could have led to higher yields. They therefore stick to the old methods of farming. Besides that, there is low technological development in less developed nations like Ghana which also affect green revolution of agriculture in the sense that most agricultural inputs are imported into these nations hence there is persistent low productivity. Low level of education is one of the impediments to green revolution of agriculture in Ghana in particular. The educational level of most farmers is so low that, it becomes difficult to teach the peasant farmers modern farming practices, the few extension officers who are trained to educate farmers on better farming practices finds it difficult to do so as dissemination of information to local people becomes difficult due to language barrier. English language as the common medium of communication is not understood by the local people and if an extension officer does no understand the native language of the people his work is affected, the roblem of inadequate trained agricultural workers and appropriate logistics is yet another challenge to green revolution in Ghana, informal education that is being organized to educate farmers, also lacks the commitment of the local farmers and mostly fails. The nature of agricultural institutions in Ghana is also one of the outstanding factors that militated against the development of agricultural in Ghana. Most agricultural institutions are located out of reach of the peasant farmers.  Most of these institutions are located in urban areas whereas most farmers in the country live and work in the rural areas, these institutions are also filled with people with little or no knowledge in modern farming practices and the few available personnel have to battle with a large population size of farmers as it is noted in Ghana that the extension officer to farmer ratio is one officer is to one hundred and forty thousands farmers (1: 140000). This clearly indicates that it is impossible for the few extension officers to carry out their work effectively with this large farming population. Moreover the few officers are not motivated enough to give up their best. Furthermore, government policies in Ghana towards agricultural development are nothing to write home about. Agriculture as the mainstay of the economy, which should have been given the highest attention on yearly budgetary allocation most at times receives the least attention of government in resource allocation. This has inevitably led to the inability of agricultural institutions to supply farmers with inputs in order to boost their production levels. The little funds that are allocated to agriculture are also face with the problem of poor distribution as the target areas are not reached. The poor agricultural nature is also faced with unfavorable competition in the international markets with the advance nations like U. S. due to trade liberalization; which makes it possible for countries to be able to export its agricultural goods or produces to other countries. This has led to unhealthy competition and to the killing of the local agricultural industries in most less developed nations. The advance nations with better agricultural inputs couple with high level of technology and quality agricultural produces simply take over the market and display our local farmers. This has led to l0ow productivity as they are faced with strong competition in the market and at most times they are the hard-hit. These advance nations brings into the less developed countries their cheap and subsidized agricultural products, hence get better patronage than their local competitors. This is evident in Ghana, as imported rice is better patronized than the locally produced rice. Hence trade liberalization among nations has affected agricultural development among less developed nations like Ghana. Lastly, the poorly organized nature of our farmers is also another problem militating against the green revolution of agriculture. The farmers are not united to be able to access financial support for large scale farming; in other words they do not form co-operative societies which could give them a well developed foundation to ask for financial assistance from financial institutions and corporate bodies to embark on commercial farming activities this imply that these peasant farmers can not increase productivity and continue to remain in the peasant cycle. The above are some of the institutional factors that have militated against the smooth green revolution of agriculture in Ghana; hence the reforming of such institutional bottlenecks forms the main path to well green revolution of agriculture in Ghana