science

Operation Feed Yourself

Operation Feed Yourself is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Operation Feed Yourself rather than just read about it. In short: Operation Feed Yourself was an agricultural program administered in Ghana under military general and head-of-state Ignatius Kutu Acheampong. This policy was initiated in February 1972 and remained until the end of Acheampong's regime in 1978.

Key takeaways

Operation Feed Yourself belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Operation Feed Yourself to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Operation Feed Yourself from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Operation Feed Yourself was an agricultural program administered in Ghana under military general and head-of-state Ignatius Kutu Acheampong. This policy was initiated in February 1972 and remained until the end of Acheampong's regime in 1978. Operation Feed Yourself aimed to increase levels of food crops produced in Ghana for domestic consumption. Ideologically, the program was an attempt toward self-sufficiency. Ultimately, Operation Feed Yourself failed to improve domestic food conditions in Ghana as local food crops remained scarce and price levels on these remained high.

Background

Colonial background Ghana became a recognized, independent country in 1957. Under the colonial rule of Great Britain, Ghana's agricultural structure was engineered to produce lucrative crops (palm oil in the 19th century and cocoa in the 20th century) for the profit of the British mainland. Because living conditions in Ghana were harsh on Europeans, settler-agriculture was not a significant presence and Ghanaian agriculture under British rule relied primarily on peasants. Peasant populations in Ghana willingly collaborated with a system of export-oriented agriculture in exchange for the compensation provided by British rule. As a result, Ghana's agricultural system leading up to Operation Feed Yourself was export-oriented and produced crops tailored for European rather than domestic tastes.

Kofi Busia regime (1969–72) Kofi Abreba Busia's regime as Prime Minister immediately preceded the regime of Ignatius Kutu Acheampong and Operation Feed Yourself. Busia's removal from office at the hands of Acheampong was strongly motivated by Ghana's economic performance under Busia. Busia's regime produced a decline in per capita production and per capita income without a proposed plan in response. Busia was also heavily reliant on aid from western countries, characteristic which was despised by Acheampong who hinged his regime on self-reliance.

Goals The primary goal of Operation Feed Yourself was to increase the volume and diversity of agriculture intended for domestic consumption in Ghana. Specifically, the program's first "Five Year Plan" set as a goal of 6% annual growth in agricultural output. Ghana had produced an annual growth rate in agricultural output of 2.6% between 1969 and 1972. This growth in agriculture would also have significant effects on employment levels. The Acheampong government projected an increase of 0.8 million in the number of farmers nationwide by the year 1990. Additionally, the program projected a rise in GDP contributed by agriculture from 1,800 million cedis at the start of the program to 2,600 million cedis by 1990. Ideologically, the goal of Operation Feed Yourself was self-reliance, an uplift of Ghana by its own people.

Program structure

Zones With the intent to maximize crop production, Operation Feed Yourself divided Ghana's territory into 9 zones and assigned to each zone the production of the crops most profitably grown there. The zones and crop assignments were as follows: Eastern Region: cassava, maize, plantains, sugarcane, tea, avocado, citrus, and yams. Central region: maize, yams, cassava, plantain, rice, pineapple, and sugarcane. Western Region: plantain, palm oil, bananas, rice, and coconut. Ashanti Region: plantain, maize, soya bean, and yams. Brong Ahafo: tomatoes, plantain, maize, yams, groundnuts, rice, and soya beans. Greater Accra: maize, cassava, vegetables, rice, watermelons, and cashew. Volta Region: cassava, rice, maize, and yams. Northern and Upper Regions: yams, guinea corn, maize, groundnut, millet, and rice.

Administrative structure Operation Feed Yourself was a program within Ghana's Ministry of Agriculture. The program's structure included components at the national and regional levels. At the national level, the principal agent leading Operation Feed Yourself was the Commissioner of Agriculture, who oversaw the entire program. Much of the program's implementation was carried out through the National Operations Committee, which was composed of departments specializing in food production and distribution: The Department of Agricultural Economy, the Department of Fisheries, the Seed Multiplication Unit, the Crop Production Unit and the Agricultural Mechanization Unit. The National Operations Committee had am important agent for the execution of its plans in the Program Control Executive, who issued all instructions within Operation Feed Yourself. At the regional level, the principal position was the regional commissioner. There was one regional commissioner for each of the nine regions. Regional commissioners each led a Regional Agricultural Committee, which received directives from the National Operations Committee and the Program Control Executive. Underneath Regional Agricultural Committees were regional agricultural coordinators, who supervised the distribution of information to farmers at the regional level. The actual distributor of information and primary source of contact for farmers was the district agricultural officer.

Involved state production agencies Additionally, the following state agencies were charged with actual production and distribution: State Farms Corporation, Food Production Corporation, Settlement Division, Food Distribution Corporation, Grains and Legumes Development Board, State Fishing Corporation, Cotton Development Board, and Pomazde Poultry Enterprise.

Methods

Outreach Operation Feed Yourself sought to increase the number of citizens working towards crop growth, and therefore, the Acheampong government made significant outreach efforts. These efforts included programming and propaganda on television and radio promoting agriculture. Additionally, the government employed its ties with institutions such as universities, the military, and prisons to encourage the creation of agricultural production units within each.

Government collectivization The Acheampong government created a system for collecting, transporting, storing and trading crops within the country. The purposes of this system were to ensure the existence of a buyer for crops cultivated in rural areas, and to provide a means for these food products to reach urban areas. For example, agencies such as Meat Marketing Board, State Fishing Corporation and Food Distribution Corporation purchased crops from farmers and sold them at discounted prices to urban-dwellers.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Operation Feed Yourself

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Operation Feed Yourself claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Operation Feed Yourself before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Operation Feed Yourself ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Operation Feed Yourself

In research: Operation Feed Yourself appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Operation Feed Yourself in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Operation Feed Yourself is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Agricultural policy, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Operation Feed Yourself outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Operation Feed Yourself in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Operation Feed Yourself means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Operation Feed Yourself out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Operation Feed Yourself in simple terms?

Why does Operation Feed Yourself matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Operation Feed Yourself?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Operation Feed Yourself.