Black Gold versus Green Gold: Ghana’s Oil and the Agriculture sector in the Western Region

The discovery of oil in commercially exploitable quantities in Ghana has ignited excitement in the country. This is not only in relation to the increase in government revenue, but people are hopeful it would lead to creation of jobs for the unemployed. However, the development of the sector could also be disastrous for traditional sectors such as agriculture, if not properly managed. Agriculture, which has been the backbone of the Ghanaian economy, could suffer from the effects of oil development. The paper builds on the “resource curse” and “Dutch Disease” literature. The paper seeks to find out how gov-ernment can ensure a balance in both sectors and escape the ‘‘resource curse’’. Though the oil would increase government revenue, it can also worsen the plight of the poor (Ross 2003). The setting is in the Western region, where the oil has been discovered. The paper examines the role of agriculture in the re-gion, from three perspectives, climatic conditions, employment and revenue for government. Qualitative method of semi-structured questions, direct ob-servation and Focus Group Discussions were used to collect the data. The study reveals that the oil sector could have adverse impact on agriculture if in-vestment and promotion of the agricultural sector is neglected.