Accra, Jan 30,

Farming households constitute the poorest socio economic group in the country, a report launched in Accra today has said. The report, which was compiled by the Ghana Statistical Service, was launched by Daasebre (Dr) Oti Boateng, Government Statistician. The report reveals that even within the farming communities, growers of food crops are slightly poorer than export crop farmers.

Titled 'The Pattern Of Poverty In Ghana,' the report covers a study period of four years (between 1988 and 1992) and is based on data collected from a three phased Ghana Living Standards Survey (GLSS). The Government Statistician said among the most pertinent results of the survey is the observation that rural communities in Ghana are afflicted by higher levels of poverty than urban areas, although some pockets of urban poverty exist.

Daasebre Oti Boateng said the study shows that even within rural areas, poverty was disproportionately more pronounced in the savannah areas of the North. He said the study shows that over 30 per cent of Ghanaians live below the higher poverty line (132,000 cedis per capita per annum) while about 17 per cent fall below the lower poverty line(99,000 cedis) during the four year period under study.

Daasebre Oti Boateng said the results show that at the national level, the percentage of the population defined as poor, relative to the higher poverty line, was 37 per cent in 1987 88, 42 per cent in 1988 89, and 31 per cent in 1991 92, indicating "a modest" six per cent reduction in poverty over the five year period. He said all three rounds of the Ghana Living Standards Survey on which the report is based were structured on a nationally representative sample of households and examined poverty in relation to variables like expenditure, education, health and housing

The report also sheds light on some of the characteristics of the poor and the fulfilment of basic needs in relation to the poor and the non poor. Poor households, for instance, were found to be larger than non poor households, while child labour was widespread within poor homes. "Larger households were most common in rural savannah. This is consistent with earlier findings that this was the poorest locality. ''Accra, which was the locality least affected by poverty, had the smallest average household size," he said.

Although the Government Statistician thought the relationship between educational status and welfare is a complex one, he observed a "strong and positive" relationship between school enrolment and poverty status. According to the report, in 1991 92, children of primary school going age from non poor households, who were then not in school, constituted 21 per cent compared with corresponding figures of 28 per cent for the poor and 39 per cent for the very poor.

In the area of employment and income, Daasebre Oti Boateng said the report reveals that the non poor were mainly engaged in formal employment while the poor were involved in agriculture. Agricultural activities, however, remained the most important source of income in the country followed by non agrarian self employment. The report says although the two sources together accounted for over 70 per cent of total income in the country, agriculture provided the main source of income for poorer households while income from self employment was the main sources for better off households.

"It becomes clear in this report that agriculture still occupies a key position in our socio economics and therefore deserves a much more elaborate agenda," said Dr. J.L.S. Abbey, Executive Director of the Centre for Economic Policy Analysis and chairman for the launching ceremony. "If the people in such a sensitive sector, are living in this much poverty, how could we hope to achieve economic stability in the near future," he asked.

He contended that not every 'growth' may be supportive of the policy of poverty alleviation and that "we should continually monitor our growth through such studies so that we may know which government policies are inimical to real growth and progress. In preparing the report, the GSS collaborated with the Universities of Warwick and Nottingham, both in the United Kingdom, and received extensive financial and technical support from the World Bank and the Overseas Development Administration, (ODA).