Ghana

Ghana has a population of around 27 million.

It is one of Africa’s leading countries, partially due to its considerable natural wealth and partly because it was the first black African country south of the Sahara to achieve independence from colonial rule. Agriculture, forestry and fishing employ more than half of the population. Cacao—grown commercially for its seeds, cocoa beans—is cultivated on more than one-half of Ghana’s arable land and is a significant source of the country’s export revenue. Besides cocoa beans, timber and palm oil, other agricultural products that are exported include sugar, coffee, palm kernels, copra and various fruits and vegetables.

70-81% of the food energy consumed in Ghana comes from crops that are not native to the region. Most of these plants’ diversity is found elsewhere on the planet. There are 15,472 unique crop samples in collections of crop diversity found in Ghana compared to the more than 750,000 found in the international collections of crop diversity supported by the Crop Trust.