One of the main challenges which Africa must take up as of this crucial time of its development is that of nourishing its people. The continent is known for its rich agricultural potential, which constitutes the major highlight of the overall economy in almost all of its countries. It really is then difficult to believe that the continent is still in a competition to reach a level of self-sufficiency. Regrettably, such is the problem, and we ask ourselves an incredible number of questions. Within a country like Ghana, which is not exempt of such a situation, and where agriculture is the main element sector of the market, we think about why rural areas are so underdeveloped, or why poverty appears to crack it and just why teenagers are becoming increasingly rare in those areas. Moreover, we could lost regarding the situation of products consumed by Ghanaians, which can be mostly brought in. The answer to these questions appears to be within the large difference between living conditions in the metropolitan and rural areas, which leads to the happening of rural exodus. Rural-urban migration in Ghana reduces the development of agriculture, which deeply affects the current economic climate.
After the colonial period, the black continent used a powerful development race for its countries. That is shown in urbanization, and Ghana does not make an exception. With most businesses and activities being focused in Ghana's urban areas, rural areas tend to lack basic needs. It is then normal to start to see the children fleeing those areas for the conquest of the town. They have got, indeed, many valid reasons to leave rural areas for locations like Accra or Kumasi for example. The consequences of an issue cannot be talked about without looking at its causes. Similarly, we cannot also talk about the consequences of rural urban migrations without, even quickly, mentioning its triggers.
Indeed, enticed by the wonder of the cities and its own infrastructural advancements, rural young ones troop to the urban areas with the hope of finding a well-paid job and living a less stressful life. Also, the strength of agricultural works, that happen to be accentuated by the use rudimentary tools and historical agricultural techniques applied make them fly. These agricultural works are mainly dependant on weather; therefore, farmers are indulged in seasonal unemployment, which will influence their financial conditions as well as their living ones. In a nutshell, the children leave rural areas searching for greener pastures. Nevertheless, with the significant appearance of rural dwellers into the location coupled with the problems they generate, the urban areas are quickly becoming agonized with certain effects of the migration. What are they?
The main effects of rural migration in Ghana are believed in the agricultural sector, which makes-up a big portion of the Ghanaian economy. The amount of infrastructures in the town leading to the rural metropolitan migration is making the countryside becoming more underdeveloped and devoid of strong energetic junior. The latter's existence being the fuel for development in the countryside; their departure adversely affects the region by moving it deeper into underdevelopment. Indeed, the youth leave behind aged and babies who are not able to put much energy into the complex work of farming, which constitutes almost all of the monetary development of the area, and of the united states all together ("Rural to Urban migration").
Consequently, the rarity of youngsters, that is, the labour submit the countryside doesn't prefer agricultural activities but rather brings both rural and metropolitan dwellers further into poverty and hunger. Like Liebenow said in 1986: "The mass exodusfrom the impoverished countryside leaves not only fewer hands to grow the country's food but more mouths to give food to" (Liebenow, qtd in Twumasi-Ankrah, 180-184). This price shortly points out the dire ramifications of rural to metropolitan migration on both the town and the countryside. With a growing number of people giving the rural areas, which happens to be the fertile grounds of development for any developing country, a restricted range of labor forces begin to be noticed as time goes on ("Rural to Urban migration"). Food creation therefore becomes low, while there are increasing numbers of people in the cities who need to be fed. A written report by the Ghana Information Agency (GNA) suggests a total of just one 1. 2 million Ghanaians have limited access to sufficient and healthy food over summer and winter, while another 2 million are at risk, or become food insecure (Ghana Media Organization, 1). It becomes
obvious that once the agricultural motor unit which is the labor side is influenced, the farming income too is attacked and is seriously reducing. Agriculture has then a central role to learn in promoting progress and poverty decrease in the Ghanaian economy at this stage of our development, and Ghana needs an agricultural revolution based on production development; this will increase almost a million more Ghanaians out of poverty (Nankani, 2).
In agriculture-based countries in South Saharan Africa, like Ghana, agriculture accounts for 32 percent of GDP expansion, mainly because it already is a big talk about of GDP (Nankani). Therefore, any problem in farms is immediately negatively affecting the whole economy of the country. Moreover, this situation favours the development of the agriculture of subsistence since farmers don't have sufficient tools and conditions for an enormous production. This sort of agriculture production is on family scale, that is, not enough to attain the city. Therefore, the united states is no more in a position to export food materials, but rather import them. The federal government, then, must spend a lot of money trying to avoid its folks from hunger. Such conditions decelerate then Ghana in its process of becoming alimentary auto-sufficient.
In addition, producing countries usually have a limited range of social amenities to appeal to their population. This example worsens with a growing number of folks trooping from the rural areas to the urban areas. Using limited facilities boosts. With such increases, facilities degrade quicker than expected, and this affects the current economic climate by increasing costs for the federal government ("Rural to Urban migration").
An increase in the number of migrants does not only put pressure on limited facilities, but it addittionally endangers the security of others when these migrants finally recognize that the job market segments are not well suited for them. With no job no sources of income, rural migrants must pay the bills. The situation becomes a anxious one where people are prepared to do anything to get money. Most migrants from rural areas then result to tactics such as stealing, equipped robbery, prostitution. Furthermore, since they cannot afford a significant shelter, they will probably settle in what's popularly known as kiosks. Once began by one person, the trend employs. The region quickly becomes overcrowded with an atmosphere not worthy of living in ("Rural to Urban migration")
Other examples of migrants who finish up participating in any activity that would earn them some money will be the 'Kayayos'. They are simply young women or young girls who are porters, holding heavy loads on their minds (DiCampo, 1). They usually migrate from rural areas in the northern region to the bustling locations in the south (DiCampo, 1). These young girls and women usually get very little for the hard work they are doing. "I will not get back to that place. They are suffering there. Unless you have money, you suffer from. You will not eat. At home, you can always prepare and eat, " said Amariya, a woman in her 20s who performed in Ghana's capital, Accra, until she acquired enough money to come back to her community and marry (DiCampo, 1). This is the fact once in the town. Like Amariya, a few of them choose to leave; others keep preventing for a better urban life and become subjected to many sociable vices that they further cultivate.
These people for example, with such instabilities in their lives cannot send their children to school either in the countryside or in the location since such infrastructures are lacking in the rural areas while they are expensive in town. In addition, we must remember that rural to metropolitan migration has devoid the countryside of professors, a form of "brain drain" on the rural society (Twumasi-Ankrah). Rural-urban migration then, can be an essential aspect of analphabetism which symbolizes a danger for future years of the country, that is, the unavailability of elites to drive the country ahead in its development techniques.
It is amazing to see how much these issues are gradually affecting the country. It becomes clear that something must be done to slow down this phenomenon. The countryside signifies the power hands that give food to a country and it needs to be developed, that is, to have infrastructures and good conditions of life to make sure good productivity. The decentralization of the location then becomes a crisis for the survival of the country and the stability of its financial situation.
In bottom line, we can deduce from this research that the rural areas and cities are intrinsically related which besides has serious effects on the Ghanaian market. Rural migration is an authentic phenomenon, a real scourge that undermines the Ghanaian world and Africa as a whole, weakening at the same time the initiatives for an effective development, which is principally predicated on agriculture. The fact of the problem is usually that the rural youth desert the villages for the places, and it creates many negative implications for both the towns and the rural areas. It is then important that the federal government must take more effective actions to be able to determine the lacking infrastructures, that is, to repair this ongoing problem. This appears to be the only path for the united states to solve the challenge, also to make effective steps towards development. Does the fact that rural urban migration is tearing Ghana mean that it generally does not have beneficial effects on both the city and the countryside?
