World Bank to help fund food security drive

The World Bank has approved a credit of US $67 million for Ghana’s Agricultural Services Subsector Investment Project, aimed at increasing agricultural productivity and incomes, thus reducing rural poverty. The aims of the project also include improving food security and providing the basis for faster and environmentally sustainable economic growth. Rural dwellers represent 63 percent of Ghana’s population and agriculture accounts for 38 percent of its gross domestic product. Some 84 percent of Ghana’s poor live in the countryside, where the poverty rate stands at 52 percent compared to 23 percent in towns, the World Bank said.