Social Agriculture: How Social Media Is Reshaping Agriculture Value Chains in Ghana

This report provides insights into how social media creates and impacts livelihoods in the agriculture sector in Africa’s digital economy, especially in Ghana. Known as “social agriculture,” the use of social media in agricultural activities is gaining popularity in economies worldwide, including in Ghana. Social agriculture refers, broadly speaking, to the set of practices composing the use of social media platforms to support agricultural livelihoods. Despite the promise of social media platforms, little is known about how social media reconfigures agricultural value chains and impacts the livelihoods of actors within them. This study is a response to this knowledge gap and aims to enable more social agriculture winners in the agricultural sector in sub-Saharan Africa. To achieve this objective, we engaged 17 Ghanaian agricultural sector stakeholders with expert knowledge and experience in the sector to identify value chains influenced by social media. The recommended value chains in Ghana were cocoa, rice, soybean, and vegetables. However, in gaining access to actors for detailed analysis, we developed five case studies spanning vegetables, rice, cocoa, and agricultural processing. A total of 28 interviews were done to develop the case studies.