Agricultural Development in the Ivory Coast and Ghana

Jean M. Due

doi:10.1017/S0022278X00018875

Agricultural Development in the Ivory Coast and Ghana

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 November 2008

Jean M. Due

Article contents

Extract
References

Get access

Rights & Permissions

Extract

Situated side by side on the west coast of Africa, of similar size, and having similar national incomes per capita and capacity for development at independence, Ghana and the Ivory Coast present marked contrasts in the development of both agriculture and industry.1 Ghanaian politicians led the African independence movement, with Ghana receiving independence in 1957. The Ivory Coast was granted independence in 1960 with little indigenous effort. In the early years of independence Ghana welcomed aid and technical assistance from both private and government sources in the west, but after 1961 turned more and more to the Communist world and a philosophy of socialisation of agriculture and industry.2 During the five-year period from 1961 until Nkrumah was overthrown in early 1966, the development emphasis was on state farms and factories: 125 of the former were established by the State Farms Corporation, 84 by the Workers' Brigade and Young Farmers' League, and 870 by the co-operatives.

Type: Articles
Information: The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 7 , Issue 4 , December 1969 , pp. 637 - 660

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022278X00018875 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1969

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

^{Page 637 note 1} The Ghanaian data are similar to those presented in an earlier article by Due, Jean M., ‘What Happened to the Ghanaian State Farms?’ in Illinois Agricultural Economics (Champaign), ix, 2, 07 1969Google Scholar. For more detailed historical data, see Miracle, Marvin P. and Seidman, Ann, State Farms in Ghana, and Agricultural Cooperatives and Quasi Cooperatives in Ghana, 1951–65 (Land Tenure Center, University of Wisconsin), 43, 03 1968, and 51, 07 1968.Google Scholar

^{Page 637 note 2} Not only did Nkrumah want to make Ghana the showplace of Africa, but he wanted to encourage the Organisation of African Unity to establish its headquarters there and to look to Ghana for guidance and leadership. He built, at a Cost of $39 million, a beautiful multi-storey headquarters for the Organisation of African Unity in Accra—a building which has never been used for that purpose.

^{Page 638 note 1} Birmingham, Walter, Neustadt, I., and Omaboe, E. N., A Survey of Contemporary Ghana, vol. IGoogle Scholar, The Economy of Ghana (Evanston, 1966), p. 17Google Scholar; National Accounts of Less Developed Countries, 1950–1966 (Paris, 1968)Google Scholar; Economic Survey, 1967 (Accra, 1968), p. 52.Google Scholar

^{Page 638 note 2} Skinner, Snider W., The Agricultural Economy of the Ivory Coast (Washington, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1964), p. 4.Google Scholar

^{Page 638 note 3} Most recent estimate, Minstère du plan, République de la Côte d'Ivoire.

^{Page 638 note 4} Although the income per capita is similar in the two countries, the distribution of income, may be quite different. In Ghana the monetary unit is the New Cedi, currently exchanged at U.S. $0·98 or 8s·2d. The Ivory Coast unit is the C.F.A.; until September 1969, U.S. $1 was worth 246·8 C.F.A. For convenience most of the monetary references in the text have been converted into U.S. dollar equivalents, at that rate.

^{Page 638 note 5} Foster, Philip J., ‘Educational Development in Ghana and the Ivory Coast’ (University of Chicago 1965, mimeo), pp. 2–4.Google Scholar

^{Page 639 note 1} Sources: Birmingham, Neustadt, and Omaboe, op. cit. pp. 40–41, and 314; Ghana, , Economic Survey, 1967 (Accra, 1968)Google Scholar; most recent estimates of the Ministère clu plan, République du Côte d'Ivoire (Abidjan). The cost-of-living index used to convert G.N.P. to constant prices is an average of the traditional and modern family indices in the Ivory Coast.

^{Page 640 note 1} F.A.O. Production Yearbook, 1967 (Rome, 1968), XXI, p. 560.Google Scholar

^{Page 640 note 2} Eshag, Eprime and Richards, P. J., ‘A Comparison of Economic Developments in Ghana and the Ivory Coast since 1960’, in Bulletin of the Oxford University Institute of Economics and Statisctics (Oxford), XXIX, 4, 11 1967, pp. 363 and 355.Google Scholar

^{Page 640 note 3} Sources: Ghana, Economic Survey, 1960 and 1967; Ministére des finances des affair économiques et du plan, Situation économique de la Côte d'Ivoire (Abidjan), 1960Google Scholar; Bulletin mensuel de statistique (Abidjan); 1967Google Scholar figures from the Embassy of the Ivory Coast, Washington.

^{Page 641 note 1} Sources: Ghana, Economic Survey, 1967, p. 33; Ivory Coast, as Table 2.

^{Page 641 note 2} U.S. Department of Commerce, ‘Basic Data on the Economy of Ghana’, in Overseas Business Reports (Washington), 07 1968, pp. 11 and 12.Google Scholar

^{Page 642 note 1} ‘Basic Data on the Economy of the Republic of the Ivory Coast’, Ibid. April 1968, p. 9.

^{Page 642 note 2} ‘Market Indicators for Africa’, Ibid. April 1968, p. 15.

^{Page 642 note 3} Report of the Agricultural Committee of the National Liberation Council (Accra, 1966), pp. 8 and 15.Google Scholar

^{Page 643 note 1} By 1961 1,500 produce marketing societies had been registered with the Department of Co-operatives, with assets of over $ 16·8 million. When the co-operatives were returned to the farmer owners in 1966, the assets had dwindled to $2·1 million worth of property, some of which had deteriorated badly; only 870 recognised co-operative societies remained with an average membership of only 20. Ibid. p. 11.

^{Page 643 note 2} United Ghana Farmers Cooperative Council (UGFCC) during the Nkrumah Régime, Report of the Committee of Inquiry on the Purchase of Cocoa, hereinafter referred to as the de Graft–Johnson Report (Accra, 1966), p. 9.Google Scholar

^{Page 643 note 3} Report of the Agricultural Committee of the N.L.C., p. 10.

^{Page 644 note 1} Statistics of Large Scale, Specialized, Institutional, Cooperative, and Young Farmers League Farming and Service Stations, 1965 (Accra, 1965), pp. 58–9.Google Scholar

^{Page 644 note 2} de Graft–Johnson Report, pp. 29–30.

^{Page 644 note 3} Export duties accounted for 32 per cent and buying agents' commissions, administrative and other expenses accounted for 10 per cent of the total proceeds from cocoa in the period 1957–61. See A Survey of Contemporary Ghana, p. 367.

^{Page 644 note 4} Economic Survey, 1965 and 1966, pp. 56 and 50 respectively.

^{Page 644 note 5} de Graft–Johnson Report, pp. 30 and 20.

^{Page 645 note 1} Report of the Agricultural Committee of the N.L.C., p. 9.

^{Page 645 note 2} Statistics of… Farming and Service Stations, 1965, p. 4.

^{Page 646 note 1} Statistics of… Farming and Service Stations, 1965, p. 7.

^{Page 646 note 2} Source: Ibid. p. 8.

^{Page 646 note 3} This category includes the Volta River resettlement farms, university and mission farms, Academy of Sciences farms, prison farms, etc.

^{Page 647 note 1} Report of the Agricultural Committee of the N.L.C., p. 8.

^{Page 647 note 2} Ibid. p. 13.

^{Page 648 note 1} Ibid. pp. 43–4.

^{Page 648 note 2} Ibid. p. 45.

^{Page 649 note 1} Figures supplied by Corporation officials.

^{Page 650 note 1} Report of the Agricultural Committee of the. N.L.C., p. 11.

^{Page 650 note 2} Ibid. p. 53.

^{Page 650 note 3} Ibid. pp. 12 and 50.

^{Page 651 note 1} Ibid. p. 13.

^{Page 652 note 1} Skinner, op. cit. p. 8.

^{Page 652 note 2} Ibid. p. 21.

^{Page 653 note 1} Ibid., p. 23.

^{Page 653 note 2} S.A.T.M.A.C.I., Operation Riz, Rapport anmtel, 1964 and 1967 (Abidjan, mimeo.), pp. 75 and 9 respectively.Google Scholar

^{Page 654 note 1} Figures obtained from S.A.T.M.A.C.I. officials in Abidjan.

^{Page 655 note 1} Opération Riz, Rapport annuel, 1967, pp. 28, 30, 32, and 56.

^{Page 657 note 1} Figures supplied by Government and World Bank officials.

^{Page 658 note 1} Source: I.B.R.D., ‘Oil Palm and Coconut Project Report’ (unpublished).

^{Page 660 note 1} Eprime Eshag and P. J. Richards, op. cit. pp. 370–2.

^{Page 660 note 2} A number of competent Ghanaians left Ghana during this period, taking employment in U.N. and other organisations.

Article contents

Agricultural Development in the Ivory Coast and Ghana

Extract

Access options

References

Save article to Kindle

Save article to Dropbox

Save article to Google Drive

Reply to: Submit a response

Your details

You have entered the maximum number of contributors

Conflicting interests