'Why Is Ghana Still an Ledc?\r'

'Why is gold coast still an LEDC? Peilin Cheng 9A Although Ghana is loaded in raw materials and wanted metals, it is still a Less economically Developed Country (LEDC). There are umpteen different reasons ranging from the environment and modality to their debt problem. Ghana is in the tropics of Africa cheeseparing the equator which immorals the temperature is very hot, thither is overly a hot dry newton East wind called the harmattan which b smalls between declination and March. Ghana’s temper and ecosystems are split into three different climate and ecosystems: The Tropical rainforest is hot and derisory all year round.This means that it is a good source of timber timber however much than of the rainforest is universe cut down for firewood or by farmers to clear land for farming, Ghana is the snatch largest cocoa producer in the ball because of the ideal growing climate. The farmers gain more land to grow on nevertheless once the nutrients defecate b een utilise up the soil becomes useless and more or less farmers groundwork non reach fertiliser so the land is aband mavend. everywhere three quarters of the rainforest has been undo so deforestation is a problem. Diamonds, gold, bauxite and many a(prenominal) early(a) useful ores or precious metals are overly found in the rainforest area.The Savannah is hot and very dry due to drought, deforestation and overgrazing and there are not as many useful rude(a) resources there, unfortunately more of the North of Ghana is turning into desert. Desertification is a growing environmental problem because the demonstrate is standardizedly dry for agricultural uses and so it slows down Ghana’s wearment. The majority of Ghana’s doing compact is farmers so the state of the land is very big to them. Both desertification and deforestation mean nigh crops to sell and eat so there is more beggary.The Coastal Savannah is sort of hot and dry but whatsoever oil has b een found offshore (although it is not enough, it has to import a lot more), it has more natural gas which Ghana has begun to use. The River Volta is utilise for hydroelectricity and fishing which has helped Ghana develop. There are also in force(p) about historical reasons on wherefore Ghana is still in poverty. Ghana was not always one country; it apply to be do up of separate kingdoms and so some hoi polloi were wealthy. Then some Europeans arrived in 1650 and began trading gold with Ghana.Later, the British began demanding slaves for their plantations in America so they bought at least 5000 peck per year from the country, this held back development. The kingdoms went to warfare for over 150 years for people to sell. Many Europeans competed for trade but the British soon took over and by 1901 the kingdoms had been squeeze together and Ghana had become a British colony, this is a mixture of two helping and hindering development because the British did build railways to s peed up the attend to as hale as roads, schools and hospitals for the people but they had to pay taxes for them.The British exported diamonds, gold, ivory, timber, pepper, gamboge and cocoa which do the Europeans very rich but not the people in Ghana. In 1957 Ghana finally gained in playency but problems soon arose, they had no factories, few services and not many enlightened or skilled people. Since Ghana had just gained independence, it wanted to develop fast so they resumeed a lot of specie from the humanness Bank and other governments. When people borrow money they have to pay an pursuance on the loan, most of the bank loans were made in the early 1970s when the order were low.Then they suddenly rose so poorer countries desire Ghana could not maintain their repayments and so had to spend more money than they were earning on repaying their debt than actually developing. This meant less money for edifice schools, hospitals, clean piss supplies as well as other things t he people desperately needed. Being in debt can have a colossal impact on life, especially if you are live in a developing country. There were less schools which meant there was a very low literacy rate so it was harder to find work which meant unemployment.Plans to create a clean piddle supply were put on stem which meant an unhealthy workforce due to corruptive water, bad healthcare and unhygienic living conditions, this also lead to unemployment. Unemployment meant no income and money so people lived in poverty and was not able to pay for medicate or school. This resulted in a motorbike which was hard to break. Most poor countries depend on selling their crops (e. g. sugar, cocoa, coffee, bananas, etc. ) to other countries but despite that fact, Ghana is not getting richer.When Ghana tries to sell their crops to a richer country, it faces large tariffs which put buyers off. The world toll of many crops are falling because too much is world grown and also big food compa nies who buy most of their crops force the price down. The tariffs stop crops being sold and the falling world prices mean they earn less. At the same time, farmers in richer and more developed countries who grow similar crops get subsidies for them. Those crops are the shipped to poorer countries at such low prices the local farmers cannot compete with and so hey go out of business. Poorer countries cannot stop those imports because the creative activity Bank has forced them to lower tariffs in exchange for their loans. In 2000 there was a campaign in the UK to cancel the debt of some of the world’s poorest countries. The campaign was a success and this meant that the money that would be used to repay their debt could be used to develop their countries. They could spend it on clean water supplies, healthcare, education and other things.Ghana has many natural resources and the discovery of oil meant it could be used or sold and the natural gases could be used to power objec ts and generate electricity. I think that the main reason why Ghana is still an LEDC is because it cannot repay its huge debt since it cannot sell its crops fairly because powerful companies force their prices down unfairly. Hopefully their debt will be cancelled by the richer countries so they can concentrate on developing their country. Sources: http://www. economist. com/ center/global_debt_clock , geog. 3- Oxford\r\n'