The Ghana Census of Agriculture (GCA), 2017/2018, has identified that targeting women farmers for special intervention will promote food and nutrition security, economic empowerment and general livelihood.

It stated that there is the need to ensure that female smallholder farmers are sensitized on the potential financial returns on investments in agriculture and trained in general business management.

“The Ministry of Food and Agriculture should collaborate with agricultural research institutions, financial institutions and the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection to provide targeted support to women in agriculture,” it said.

According to the census, agricultural activity in Ghana is dominated by arable and tree crops farming where a relatively higher proportion of females (80.6%) than males (76.2%) cultivate arable crops, whereas a higher proportion of males (40.1%) than females (37.8%) grow tree crops. About 70% of persons aged 15 years or older are engaged in a single agricultural activity. A little over one-quarter (26.5%) are engaged in two different agricultural activities with the remaining 3.7% engaged in three or more agricultural activities.

Proportionately, more women than men are engaged in a single agricultural activity at all ages except for the 15-19 age group. There are more females than males in agricultural households. The sex ratio is 99.8 males to 100 females. This is consistent with the 20-44 years age group and persons who are 70 years or older, whereas for age groups 5-19 years and 45-69 years, there are more males than females. With regard to location, the ratio of females to males in urban areas (97.3) in agricultural households is consistent with the general sex distribution while the reverse (100.6) is the case in rural areas.

From the definition of youth by the National Youth Policy of Ghana, the youth population in agricultural households is 4,077,618, representing 36.0 percent of the total agricultural household population. The youth in urban agricultural households form 37.7percent of the total population of agricultural households while the proportion for rural agricultural households is 35.4 percent. The female youth constitutes about 51.0 percent of the total youth population. There are more female youth than male youth in both urban (51.5% and 48.5% respectively) and rural (50.6% and 49.4% respectively) agricultural households.

On educational attainment and literacy, the population aged 4 years or older forms 93.7 percent of the total agricultural household population (11,340,947). Out of this number, majority have basic education (57.2%), 12.1 percent have secondary/vocational education, and only 3.1 percent have tertiary education. However, more than one-quarter (27.2%) of the agricultural household population have never attended school. The proportion of females who have never attended school (31.5%) is higher than that of males (23.0%). The proportion of household members who have never attended school is higher in rural areas (30.2%) than in urban areas (18.4%). Generally, literacy rates are higher in urban than in rural areas and follow a similar pattern for both males and females.

A recent report on gender budgeting by the African Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP) also recommended measures needed to be taken to address the specific economic needs of women in agriculture. It identified sustainable agriculture and access to capital as the recurring needs of women in agric.

“They face challenges on issues of security of land tenure and access to farmlands, access to capital and agricultural support services and access to markets, storage and processing facilities,” it said

“They would prefer that government supplies the subsidized fertilizers on credit and allows them to pay after the cropping season with earnings from their harvest,” the study revealed.

Therefore, access to credit for farm inputs and services such as fertilizers, seedlings and tractor services that women can access and pay back after their harvest should be provided.