Assessing Poverty Situations: A Case Study of Cocoa Farming Households in the Asikuma-Odoben Brakwa District of the Central Region

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2008 in the subject Agrarian Studies, grade: 1, University of Cape Coast, course: Bsc Agriculture, language: English, abstract: Ghana has achieved substantial poverty reduction over the last 15 years and is on track of reducing its poverty rate by half before the target date of 2015 for the Millennium development Goals. The objective of this study is to document this remarkable achievement, and more broadly to review the evidence on a range of issues related to poverty reduction among cocoa farmers in Asikumah-Odoben-Brakwa of the Central Region using the most recent household survey data available The study aims to determine the contributions of cocoa farming activities to household income and consumption; to determine their level of access to basic services; to determine the contribution of cocoa into the general well-being of the people and to make recommendations on how the cocoa industry could be used to improve the living standard of the Ghanaian rural communities. The study would rely on some comparable selected Core Welfare Indicators Survey (CWIQ) for 1997 and 2003 pertaining to Asikumah-Odoben-Brakwa District. In conclusion, the study found out that cocoa farming coupled with government provision of other social services has contributed in reducing poverty in the Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa District thus most cocoa farming households are above the upper poverty line. Notwithstanding that, the study strongly recommends that government and other key stakeholders look at improving the health needs, provision of decent housing scheme and monitoring the usage of cocoa weighing scales to guaranty fairness.