Gana Cumhuriyeti’nde Tarım ve Ekonomik Büyüme

Abstract

The main objective of this work was to examine the contributions of the agricultural, service and industrial sectors to economic growth in Ghana, and to show the distribution and changes in growth rates from year to year and the current performces of the various sectors. Time series data from 1984-2013 on all the variables of interest obtained from various organizations was used for the analysis. The Ordinary Least Squares estimation technique was used for the analysis. The results showed that a 1% increase in the growth of the agricultural sector will cause GDP growth to increase by 0.248%. Also, a 1% increase in the growth of the services sector will lead to 0.472% increase in GDP growth. Finally, 1% increase in the growth of the industrial sector will bring 0.315% increase in GDP growth. All the explanatory variables are statistically significant at the 5% level of significance. It is concluded that the service sector contributed most to the overall growth. It is recommended that for Ghana to achieve higher GDP growth rate, she should activate/strengthen the service as well as the agricultural sector to lead the growth in the Ghanaian economy. Therefore, for Ghana to attain higher GDP growth rates as her key dream, more of her resources should be channeled into the service sector (0.472). Nevertheless the government should make structural changes in agricultural sector as it also forms the core of growth and development of the economy and employs the highest labour force. The agricultural sector should also be modernized for further growth and further, government must provide enough subsidies and incentives to motivate farmers especially for cocoa.