Evaluation of the Modernizing Agriculture in Ghana Program – Executive Summary

Evaluation overview

In 2017, the Government of Canada (GoC) entered a contribution arrangement with the Government of Ghana (GoG) to implement the Modernizing Agriculture in Ghana (MAG) Program. MAG was originally designed as a five-year, on-budget support mechanism and was subsequently extended by two additional years, with core programming concluding in December 2023 and a close-out phase focused on consolidation and sustainability.

MAG was designed to complement and operationalize GoG agricultural policies and programs, including its Food and Agriculture Sector Development Policy (FASDEP), Medium Term Agriculture Sector Investment Plan (METASIP II), the Ghana Shared Growth and Development Agenda and the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) suite of programs, by strengthening the systems through which agricultural services are delivered. The Program sought to modernize Ghana’s agricultural support system by improving extension services, strengthening institutional coordination, enhancing technical and professional capacity, advancing gender equality, and promoting climate-resilient practices. A central feature of MAG was its use of on-budget financing, working through existing GoG institutions at national, regional, and district levels rather than creating parallel delivery structures.

Purpose and scope of the evaluation

In keeping with Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development’s (DFATD) accountability and learning requirements, an ex-post summative evaluation was commissioned in mid-2025. Using a non-experimental, mixed-methods approach, the evaluation responded to thirteen evaluation questions organized against the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development – Development Assistance Committee (OECD-DAC) evaluation criteria of relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, and sustainability as well as gender equality, climate resilience, and systems strengthening. Using these frameworks, the evaluation examined MAG’s achievements and limitations, the extent to which expected results were achieved, and the conditions that shaped those results. The evaluation also generated forward-looking insights to inform future GoG and Canada-supported agricultural programming.

Overall performance judgment

The evaluation concludes that the MAG Program delivered credible, measurable development results, with its strongest and most durable contributions occurring at the institutional and extension system levels. MAG substantially achieved its intended outcomes within its mandate, scope, and timeframe, and demonstrated meaningful progress toward intermediate system-strengthening objectives.

The Program strengthened Ghana’s agricultural support system by improving extension service delivery, enhancing the mobility and technical capacity of Agricultural Extension Agents (AEAs), supporting applied training and curriculum reform in agricultural colleges, and reinforcing coordination between research, policy, and frontline implementation. These investments enhanced core public agricultural service functions and improved overall system performance. They also enabled adaptive responses during significant external shocks, including the Fall Armyworm outbreak, COVID-19, flooding, and droughts.

MAG contributed to incremental modernization of Ghana’s agricultural system. It did not - and was not designed to - deliver structural transformation at national scale. Its results are consistent with its role as a time-bound, sector-focused, system-strengthening initiative.

Assessing performance against OECD-DAC criteria, MAG was rated^{Footnote 1}:

• Highly Relevant aligning well with Ghana’s agricultural development priorities (policies/programs) and to the operational realities of extension agents, decentralized departments, and smallholder farmers. This alignment was consistently validated across regions and levels of government.
• Highly Coherent with strong internal and external coherence through an effective on-budget support model that reinforced existing Government of Ghana systems and decentralized architecture rather than creating parallel structures.
• Substantially Effective, strengthening extension delivery and improving farmer access to services. Improvements in AEA mobility, facilitation skills, coordination, and professional confidence increased farmer reach with enhanced advisory services.
• Moderately Efficient by working through existing government systems and using cost-sharing arrangements, embedding technical assistance, and a decentralized implementation model to reduce duplication and supported broader reach. Delays in operational fund release at the district level undermined efficiency. Procurement decisions also demonstrated mixed results, particularly where lifecycle costing and maintenance planning were insufficiently considered.
• Moderately Sustainable with uneven sustainability outcomes. Results embedded in skills, institutional routines, and education reform persist (in the medium term only) while results dependent on recurrent operational financing, especially AEA mobility, coordination, and demonstrations, were reduced or suspended when MAG-funding ended.
• Substantially Impactful contributing to incremental system modernization along a pathway toward longer-term transformation. In the process and through a strengthened extension system, the Program brought new, relevant and adoptable technical skills and technology to 5.7M farmers. By all accounts, this increased adoption/use of technology by smallholder farmers has positively influenced farm-level productivity, incomes, resiliency and food security.
• Substantially Inclusive of Women by advancing women’s participation and inclusion in agriculture. Gains in participation, however, did not, nor were they intended to, lead to changes in control over productive assets.
• Substantially Climate-Responsive contributing incrementally to environmental sustainability within an already climate-aware Government of Ghana framework.

Final assessment

MAG strengthened extension capacity, reinforced institutional coherence, and modernized agricultural education, laying important foundations for longer-term sector reform. The durability and scalability of these gains will depend primarily on continued domestic financing, sustained commitment, and the extent to which structural constraints are addressed over time.

The Program demonstrates that system strengthening through on-budget support can deliver meaningful results when aligned with national priorities and supported by disciplined implementation and oversight.

Major achievements

• At its peak., MAG reached an estimated 5.8 million farmers annually (40% women) through approximately 800,000 farm visits, with 370,158 of these farmers participating each year in needs-driven demonstrations and field studies. This outreach accelerated the adoption/use of improved and climate-sensitive seeds, subsidized fertilizers (PJF), and farming practices, contributing to higher productivity and yields and plausibly strengthening income, resilience, and food security.
• Improved coordination between research institutions (e.g., Council for Scientific and Industrial Research(CSIR)), regional structures, and frontline extension services through Research Extension Linkages Committees (RELCs), helping translate research into field-level practice.
• Strengthened the extension system’s functionality - mobility, outreach, and service delivery - by funding in-service training, technical assistance, and vehicles for more than 2,225 Agricultural Extension Agents (AEAs) and subject matter specialists, as well as 4,092 prospective “next generation” public and private AEAs (from Nation Builders Corps, Youth Employment Agency, and National Service).
• Established a trained cadre of regional and district trainers, with standardized training materials, to support ongoing capacity strengthening of AEAs.
• Strengthened agricultural colleges and universities by introducing modern, market-oriented curricula, upgrading facilities, and improving practical teaching methods. These changes increased the technical skills and income-generating opportunities for 8,878 graduates (27% women). Evidence indicates that graduates are applying their knowledge and skills both within and beyond the agriculture sector.
• Improved the responsiveness of the extension and farmer support system, enabling adaptive responses during major external shocks, including COVID-19, flooding, drought, and pest infestations.
• Advanced climate-responsive agricultural practices and strengthened system capacity to respond to environmental and climate-related risks.
• Strengthened government institutional performance and governance in planning, financial management, and collaboration improving coherence across and between all three levels of government.
• Achieved qualified progress in women’s participation and inclusion; however, structural land tenure constraints remain the single largest barrier to women’s full economic empowerment and participation in the agriculture sector.
• Demonstrated that donor-financed on-budget financing can be an effective and efficient modality for reforming and strengthening national systems and ownership - provided post-support financing is guaranteed.

Constraints

The evaluation identifies several areas of relative weakness and constraint. These fall into two categories: (i) design choice constraints within MAG’s program architecture and implementation strategy, and (ii) structural constraints embedded within Ghana’s broader fiscal, administrative, and institutional environment.

Design choice constraints

Communication gaps early in the intervention: While there was evidence of efforts to sensitize the system on how MAG would operate, instances of improper expensing and failed audits early in the program suggest that these communication efforts were insufficient.

Fiscal discretion and funding delays at Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assembly (MMDA) level: Fiscal discretion exercised by MMDAs over district department of agriculture (DDA) operational funding created implementation challenges, including funding delays and interruptions to field activities.

These constraints were not indicative of a failure of decentralization in principle, which remains essential for locally responsive service delivery. Rather, they reflect:

• Administrative bottlenecks;
• Capacity constraints;
• Accountability weaknesses;
• Interpersonal dynamics within local governance structures.

While evidence suggests the scale of funding delays may sometimes be overstated, earlier resolution mechanisms could have mitigated efficiency losses.

Market integration emphasis came late: MAG’s refocus toward market integration and downstream value chain development occurred relatively late in the program lifecycle. As a result, market access, aggregation, and post-harvest value addition were less strongly influenced than productivity gains and farmer adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices.

Procurement and lifecycle costing weaknesses: Procurement and asset lifecycle planning reflected shared donor–government design and oversight gaps.

Key issues included:

• Insufficient upfront lifecycle costing (e.g., fuel, maintenance, spare parts, replacement cycles) for distributed assets such as motorbikes and college lab equipment.
• Sole sourcing led to a challenged procurement process for women farmer-based organization (wFBO) equipment (select wFBOs from the first cohort only).

Gender equality focused more on participation than structural economic repositioning of women: MAG’s Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) efforts were effective in increasing participation, mainstreaming gender considerations in training, and introducing gender-responsive budgeting practices. The program also piloted processing equipment support for women’s FBOs to promote value addition. However, interventions largely strengthened women’s roles within culturally accepted segments of the value chain rather than advancing structural repositioning into higher-return or traditionally male-dominated roles.

Sustainability planning and conditional budget support not fully developed at design: Although MAG strengthened institutional systems, sustainability planning - particularly related to recurrent operational financing - was not fully articulated at the design stage, in the contribution arrangement, or in the Project Implementation Plan. Advancements in agricultural technologies and practices, combined with routine staff turnover, mean that the relevance and technical currency of the agricultural support system will erode over time without deliberate renewal. Mechanisms to safeguard Canada’s investments - such as conditional financing arrangements or phased transition frameworks that could adjust to changing macroeconomic conditions (e.g., the 2022 debt crisis) - were limited.

Structural constraints

Debt crisis/AEA personnel caps: The debt crisis in 2022 affected the contribution levels the GoG could make in the agriculture support system. This included putting in place a hiring freeze and setting a cap on the recruitment and hiring of new AEAs. The AEA to farmer ratio fluctuated between a high of 1:700 during the period 2019-2022 to a high of 1:1900 in 2017 and 2018. The target for this ratio is 1:500. This limited the optimal level of reach to farmers by the system.

Droughts, flooding, fluctuating rainfall patterns: Climate change had strong implications for MAG, affecting the level of productivity gains the sector could achieve with MAG resources. While a constraint, these weather events also demonstrated the flexibility and adaptiveness of the system to solve these kinds of problems for smallholder farmers, particularly when RELCs were fully operational.

Absence of mandated agriculture allocations within Common Fund/IGF frameworks: The absence of ring-fenced or mandated allocations for agriculture within Common Fund and Internally Generated Funds (IGF) frameworks represents a structural constraint beyond the program’s direct control.

Where sustainability depends on decentralized operational financing, the lack of guaranteed allocations exposes district agriculture departments to fiscal discretion and competing political priorities. This constrains the consolidation and scaling of system-level gains.

Recommendations

The recommendations below are drawn from the full list presented in Section 11 and represent the highest-priority recommendations arising from the evaluation.

Recommendation 1: Restore core operational funding to agriculture extension services including RELCs, nation-wide.

In the immediate term, Ministry of Finance (MoF), Ministry of Local Government, Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs (MLGCRA), and MMDAs should restore operational funding to district departments of agriculture, with priority to AEA mobility costs. The evaluation identified post-MAG fragility in extension and coordination financing despite agriculture’s economic importance and increased national budget allocations to the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) in 2024. This may require directing a portion of MMDA common fund allocations and IGFs to DDA operations, allocating 2026 MoFA resources to CSIR and regional structures to reactivate RELCs, and ensuring agriculture colleges and related institutions are adequately supported.

Recommendation 2: Identify new approaches for financing agriculture supports (extension/research) for men and women smallholder farmers

Consistent with GoG’s stated commitment to innovative financing for agriculture suport services, the Government should advance a systems-based model that diversifies and stabilizes funding for technical, mechanical, and financial support to smallholder farmers, including stronger regulation and engagement of private value chain actors. The evaluation underscores continued fragility in extension and coordination financing post-MAG and highlights the importance of strengthening sustainable domestic financing in the context of an increasingly uncertain global development assistance landscape. Priority actions include establishing a finance and risk working group to explore blended and “missing-middle” models, costing core agricultural support functions to identify sustainable financing pathways, promoting entrepreneurship to expand privatized extension services, and piloting tiered public–private delivery models and partnerships that protect access for farmers least able to pay while ensuring quality and impartiality.

Recommendation 3: Reduce inefficiencies through swift and clear action to reduce funding release delays for agriculture operations at the metropolitan, municipal and district levels.

MLGCRA, in coordination with the office of local government services and the MoF, should establish and enforce time-bound standards for fund release and payment processing at the MMDA level to eliminate persistent delays affecting agricultural program delivery. The evaluation found that MAG’s efficiency was undermined not by decentralization itself, but by administrative bottlenecks, uneven public financial management capacity, and inconsistent accountability practices, resulting in hidden costs and reduced effectiveness for time-sensitive activities. A joint directive setting clear release timelines, supported by routine compliance tracking and a graduated enforcement mechanism - from technical support to escalation and administrative action - would protect program performance and strengthen accountability within decentralized implementation systems.

Recommendation 5C: Advance transformational gender strategies

Advancing from where MAG left off, GoG agricultural policy and programming should continue transitioning from participation-focused gender approaches toward explicit gender transformation strategies that address asset control, decision-making authority, and leadership for women in agriculture. While MAG expanded women’s participation in the agriculture support system, gains will remain limited without corresponding shifts in control over farm resources and household economic decisions. Future programming should define clear gender transformation objectives, align policy reform and targeted interventions to advance them, and monitor changes in power and economic positioning - not only participation rates - to ensure durable and substantive gender outcomes.

Recommendation 5D: Explicitly address land access and tenure in transformational gender strategies

Women’s limited access to and ownership of land should be addressed as a binding constraint on economic transformation. Land tenure insecurity emerged as the most persistent gender-differentiated barrier, constraining women’s ability to accumulate assets, invest, and generate sustainable income. The GoG should review and reform restrictive legal and customary frameworks, identify pragmatic entry points such as leasing and collective tenure models, and pursue a long-term reform strategy supported by strategic communications to address social norm barriers. Donors can complement this through partnerships and pilots that expand viable land-access pathways for women.

Recommendation 7: Position Farmer Based Organizations (FBOs) as platforms for economic progression - not endpoints – under Feed Ghana

Future agricultural modernization programs (e.g., Feed Ghana) should position FBOs – both mixed and women-only – as transitional platforms for economic progression rather than as endpoints of support. While MAG and GoG effectively used FBOs to reduce entry barriers and coordinate training, participation did not consistently translate into sustained income gains or deeper market integration. Programming should therefore define explicit progression pathways – from subsistence production to commercial surplus, aggregation, and structured market engagement (e.g., forward contracts with off-takers, out-grower arrangements, supply agreements with processors, or participation in warehouse receipt systems). Differentiating FBOs by growth potential, linking them to commercial buyers and financial institutions, and tracking income growth and market integration - not only membership and training outputs - will help ensure FBO engagement drives upward economic mobility rather than stabilizing low-margin production.

Recommendation 8: Establish and formalize a training unit of Regional Trainers within MoFA’s HRMDD.

The Human Resource Management and Development Directorate (HRMDD) should formalize a specialized training unit composed of Regional and District Trainers previously trained under Technical Education Development for Modernizing Agriculture in Ghana (TEDMAG) to institutionalize and scale delivery of standardized extension training. TEDMAG built a cadre of approximately 120 trainers equipped with sector-specific expertise - value chains, post-harvest management, and effective extension methodologies - as well as facilitation skills grounded in adult learning and inclusion principles, supported by established training materials. To preserve and systematize this investment post-MAG, HRMDD should designate a lead trainer to manage the unit, integrate mandatory training on the new extension agent model, FBOs, and post-harvest management into onboarding processes, and provide periodic refresher training to ensure service quality, consistency, and sustained institutional capacity.

Recommendation 10A: Align the scale of on-budget support with realistic fiscal capacity.

Future on-budget donor support should be calibrated to the recipient country’s current and projected fiscal capacity to ensure that supported functions remain sustainable after external financing ends. The evaluation found that MAG’s most durable results occurred where investments reinforced routine government functions, while sustainability weakened where recurrent costs exceeded domestic capacity or policy priority. Future programs could incorporate an ex-ante fiscal realism test at design stage, phase in recurrent-cost-heavy components only where domestic absorption is feasible, and avoid introducing service standards or delivery models that exceed prevailing budget norms, thereby reducing the risk of post-program retrenchment.

Recommendation 12: Following a systems approach, embed private-sector engagement from design through implementation.

Future agricultural modernization programs should embed a clear and operational private-sector engagement strategy from inception, with specific attention to downstream and post-harvest constraints - including storage, aggregation, processing, packaging, logistics, and market access. While MAG strengthened production and extension systems, its limited engagement with private value-chain actors constrained market integration and income gains despite improved productivity. Early, structured consultation with processors, offtakers, logistics firms, and input suppliers; clearly defined implementation roles for private actors; and incentive frameworks that de-risk, rather than crowd out, private investment – are essential to translating production gains into sustained commercial outcomes.