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Ghana The High Plains
The general terrain in the northern and northwestern part of
Ghana outside the Volta Basin consists of a dissected plateau,
which averages between 150 and 300 meters in elevation and, in some
places, is even higher. Rainfall averages between 1,000 and 1,150
millimeters annually, although in the northwest it is closer to
1,350 millimeters. Soils in the high plains are more arable than
those in the Volta Basin, and the population density is
considerably higher. Grain and cattle production are the major
economic activities in the high plains of the northern region.
Since the mid-1980s, when former United States President Jimmy
Carter's
Global 2000 program (see Glossary) adopted Ghana as one of
a select number of African countries whose local farmers were to be
educated and financially supported to improve agricultural
production, there has been a dramatic increase in grain production
in northern Ghana. The virtual absence of tsetse flies in the
region has led, moreover, to increased livestock raising as a major
occupation in the north. In fact, the region is the country's
largest producer of cattle.
Data as of November 1994
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