Access to Education for Persons with Disabilities in Ghana: A Review

This paper examines the inclusion of Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) in formal education through the lens of existing literature. In Ghana, special education for disabled children began in 1936, and a school for the blind opened in 1946 in Akropong-Akwapim. The review revealed that interventions targeting inclusive education in Ghana are disjointed and sporadic. It was also discovered that the developmental plans of successive administrations have ignored the needs of vulnerable children, particularly children with impairments. As a result, the report suggests that educational stakeholders consider including the needs of disabled children into standard educational planning and provisioning

Home-grown school feeding programmes and the challenge of embeddedness: the case of local food networks and the Ghana School Feeding Programme

Home-grown school feeding (HGSF) programmes aim to “kill two birds withone stone” by using the power of public food procurement to stimulate localagricultural development. This chapter uses the Ghana school feeding programmeas a case study to discuss the mixing of economic and non-economic activitiesunder HGSF programmes. The chapter argues that HGSF programmes areembedded in sociocultural relationships, and that their outcomes are thereforethe result of negotiation processes among various actors. The implementation ofHGSF programmes should be flexible enough to take advantage of the lessonsthat are drawn from these embedded negotiation processes

THE EFFECT OF ADOPTION OF IMPROVED VARIETIES ON RICE PRODUCTIVITY IN THE NORTHERN REGION OF GHANA

Research background: Adoption of improved rice varieties remain paramount in fighting food and nutrition insecurity across sub-Sahara Africa (SSA). A lot has been done in the space of the adoption of agricultural innovations and food and nutrition insecurity. However, studies on the drivers of improved rice variety adoption and its effect on rice output, considering time and location-specific factors, are limited. Purpose of the article: This study estimated and examined the drivers and effect of improved rice variety adoption on rice output in the northern region of Ghana. Methods: A multistage sampling technique was employed to select 404 rice farm households in the northern region of Ghana. Propensity Score Matching (PSM) approach was used to analyse the data. Findings, Value added & Novelty: This study provides literature on drivers of improved rice variety adoption and its effect on rice output, by jointly considering time and location-specific factors. The empirical results revealed that adoption of improved rice varieties has significant positive effect on rice output of farm households. This could translate into reducing food and nutrition insecurity and the importation of rice into Ghana. Similarly, improved rice varieties adoption is positively and significantly affected by family labour, membership in FBO, farmers’ perception of rainfall, awareness of government rice policy, telephone ownership, and closeness to input markets. However, the adoption of improved rice varieties bears a significant negative relationship with the age of a farmer and mechanization. To enhance rice productivity and food security outcomes, the study recommends that the development of enhanced rice varieties responsive to current climatic situation. Dissemination and promotion of the varieties should be given priority among stakeholders in the rice value chain. Farmers should be encouraged to join or form farmer-based organisations (FBOs) and support their farm work with family labour to minimize rice production costs due to external payments. Access to market by farmers should be enhanced by improving rural road networks, especially in the rural areas where rice production takes place. Government policy towards rice production should be well designed and communicated to rice farmers since awareness of government rice policy stimulates improved rice varieties adoption among rice farmers

Willingness of Rural and Peri-Urban Women Smallholder Farmers to Participate in Home-Grown School Feeding Farming Contracts in Ghana

The Ghanaian government has implemented a Home-Grown School Feeding Program, which mandates that school caterers source food from local producers. The volume of local purchases, however, remains low. This study explores constraints faced by local producers—particularly women—in selling their production to local schools. We present results of an agricultural household survey, which includes questions pertaining to a series of hypothetical school-grower contracts. We find that women state slightly lower willingness to participate in contracts compared to men, something that is partially explained by their differential ability to dictate the management of land and use of household income