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Poverty In Ghana

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As a country, Ghana is the largest plantain product provider in the world. The country has a drastically declining poverty rate in addition to a growing middle class that will be addressed below (Figure 1). This significantly impacts the food demands, consumption, and malnutrition of the country as a whole as there are various demands dependent on the status and situations of the country’s residents. Ghana is currently the largest producer of the plantain in Western African and contributes to, “13.1% of the Agricultural Gross Domestic Product,” (“Rural Poverty in Ghana”). It is this crop that provides a majority of jobs for both men and women, however it is not consumed nearly as frequently as it was in the past. Over the past few years, Ghana has had a consistent amount of economic growth (170; Ch.7). Today the Ghana has around 28 million residents and is dividend into primarily two categories specific to income. These classes are the lower-middle class and the upper middle class. As of 2011, “13.5% of the population (equivalent to 3.2 million persons) belongs to the lower middle-class (with daily per capita expenditures between US $4 and US $10) and another 6.2% of the population (equivalent to 1.5 million persons) belongs to the upper middle-class (spending between US $10- US $20 per day),” (A.A.Dankyi). The primary foundations of this divide lie in the urban as opposed to the rural areas as poverty rates have decreased from 51.7% in 1991 to 39.5% in 1998. Within urban

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