The Efficacy of a Program Promoting Rice Self-Sufficiency in Ghana during a Period of Neoliberalism

The number of the world's food insecure rose at the end of the first decade of the twenty‐first century. Despite these negative developments, however, a 2010 United Nations report argues that food security could be improved if development efforts are supported by government programs that target...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Rural sociology 2012-12, Vol.77 (4), p.520-546
Main Authors: Glenna, Leland, Ader, David, Bauchspies, Wenda, Traoré, Abou, Agboh-Noameshi, Rita Afiavi
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Africa
Agricultural development
Agricultural economics
Agricultural Occupations
Agricultural Production
Consumption
Development Policy
Economic conditions
Economic Factors
Economic policy
Expenditures
Farmers
Farming
Food
Food Security
Food supply
Foreign Countries
Ghana
Government programmes
Government programs
Interviews
Markets
National security
Neoliberalism
Oryza
Outreach Programs
Political Influences
Politics
Poverty
Program Descriptions
Program Effectiveness
Rice
Rural and urban sociology
Rural sociology
Security (Psychology)
Small business
Small farms
Sociology
Sustainability
Sustainable agriculture
Twenty First Century
United Nations
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Summary:The number of the world's food insecure rose at the end of the first decade of the twenty‐first century. Despite these negative developments, however, a 2010 United Nations report argues that food security could be improved if development efforts are supported by government programs that target smallholder farmers. This report is significant because it challenges the neoliberal perspective, which tends to promote a private‐enterprise market system and favor large‐scale producers. These competing visions for agricultural development frame our evaluation of the impact of the Africa Rice Center's (AfricaRice) efforts to promote new rice varieties among smallholder farmers to narrow the rice consumption‐production gap in Ghana. We begin by distinguishing the outreach efforts to help farmers increase production and the political‐economic conditions that limit the longevity of that outreach effort. We reviewed program documents revealing expenditures and yields among the smallholder farmers, and we conducted intensive interviews with the farmers. Although we find that the program succeeded in mobilizing farmers to increase rice production, we question the sustainability of the program's impact because state funding for the program has ended.
ISSN:0036-0112
1549-0831
DOI:10.1111/j.1549-0831.2012.00088.x