Agriculture is the linchpin for approximately 70% of the 20 million Ghanaians, providing employment, food security for domestic consumption and cash crops for the local and export markets, and raw materials for local industry. The main export crops include cocoa, cotton and cattle. Northern Ghana contributes up to 80% of the Ghana food basket and for the local market, comprising major crops like yam, cassava, maize, millet, sorghum, rice, groundnuts, beans etc, while livestock species produced cattle, sheep, goats, poultry and pigs.

About seventy five to eighty five percent (75-85 %) of the Ghanaian population are engaged in one way or the other in agriculture.

Northern Ghana is generally flat with soils which are predominantly poor soil. This situation is aggravated by very harsh and unfavourable climatic conditions of short and erratic rainfall patterns. This has led to a consistent decline in agricultural productivity and a widespread poverty over the years, especially in rural communities. Despite the huge population of the country engaged in agriculture, food security remains a bane in the country. This unfortunate phenomenon has been partly attributed to inadequate knowledge by farmers on improved technologies in agriculture, lack of access to productive resources, inadequate knowledge in value chain systems, adverse effects of climate change and general perception of farmers on farming. ASDEV foundation has gained huge experiences over time in these intervention areas and has addressed these challenges to perfection through the following approaches: