Information Use by Agricultural Policy Makers and Managers in Ghana

1996

English

Agriculture is vital to the overall economic growth and development
of Ghana. Traditionally, the sector has accounted for
the largest share in Ghana’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Over the past decade, for example, the share of domestic agriculture
in real aggregate national output averaged about 53
percent per annum; currently the figure is 50 percent per annum.
1 Agriculture is by far the highest employer of labour in
Ghana; 66 percent of the total labour force is employed by the
sector and about 80 percent of the people of Ghana depend
either directly or indirectly on agriculture for their livelihood.
The proportion of the economically active population engaged
in the agricultural sector was between 62 and 64 percent in 1960,
but declined to about 58 percent in 1970. By 1989, the proportion
in agriculture had declined further to about 51 percent.
During the decade of the 1980s therefore, the percentage of the
economically active population involved in agriculture declined
by about 0.5 percent per annum.22
Agricultural information in Ghana is said to be provided
through two main channels. These are: the well-known formal
channels, which include libraries and information centres, radio
and television, and posters; and the informal channel of
oral communication. Farmers tend to rely on the oral method
of communication, and sometimes the radio, for their information
needs, while other users of agricultural information,
such as policy-makers and managers, depend more on the formal
channels.
In many societies today, the library is expected to help members
to perform their social function by providing the information
needed for the execution of work. The concept of the
library as a support unit in the acquisition, organization, storage,
retrieval and dissemination of information in government
departments is well known, and even accepted by policy-makers
in Ghana. One of the earliest libraries established in Ghana,
for example, was that of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture,
founded in 1890. However, the practical application of this
concept in government departments in Ghana has been either
totally lacking or extremely slow. This is clearly evident in the
inadequate and disorganized resources in terms of staff, equipment
and collections that exist in most government department
libraries in the country. The very few libraries that exist in government
departments are thus not able to provide for the information
needs of policy-makers and managers. Most
government departments employ people with no formal training
in librarianship to manage their libraries. The libraries are
also inadequately funded and the materials available are usually
not current. The question therefore arises as to how policymakers
and managers in Ghana - particularly in the vital agricultural
sector - acquire the information they need.

Sam, J.