To achieve the federal outcomes of the Child and Family Services Review with limited budgets, program evaluation of strategies such as family preservation programs (FPP) is necessary. This naturalistic state-level study compared 1,510 families and 3,229 children served by FPP to non-served families. Cost avoidance was calculated on out-of-home care (OOHC) diversion rates. FPP-served families had high risks, young children, and repeated child welfare involvement. FPP was associated with fewer and shorter stays in OOHC, higher reunification rates, and more placement stability. The FPP-served families showed a recurrent pattern of need, suggesting the need to develop alternative intervention protocols.
The Government of Ghana has introduced into its energy mix many thermal generation plants, which utilize natural gas and light crude oil to augment the electric power need of the country. However, these come with high fueling cost and frequent interruption in the supply chain. One area which has not been explored is the use of biomass for electrical power generation. Pennisetum purpureum K. Schumach grows in the wild as grass in the dry semideciduous forest zone and the distributional range covers an area of approximately 2.1 million hectares. The grass has potential as a biofuel feedstock for power generation. This paper gives an overview of the potential use of Pennisetum purpureum as a cheap and readily available source of biomass or biofuel for electric power generation in Ghana.
The pressure from population growth emanating from the influx of migrant farmers and the rising birth rate among the inhabitants have altered the demand for land and landed resources in the Atebubu-Amanten District of the Bono East Region of Ghana. In a society where land tenure arrangement was mainly based on communal ownership (Sarfo 2020), recent demand for land has affected this tenure system to the extent that atomised family and individual ownership is fast emerging as land becomes a scare resources (Amanor and Ubink 2008). Yam farming in the Atebubu area is carried out under the system of shifting cultivation and land fallowing. The hoe and cutlass remain the main farm equipment and the method of land clearance and mounds making has remained intact. As observed by Kasanga (2002: 28), the question of whether the communal land tenure system restricts or reduce agricultural development cannot be adequately answered without reference to the farming system. The system of yam farming in the Atebubu-Amanten District does not easily fit in individual control and privatization of land. This paper seeks to unearth the effect of land tenure dynamism on yam farming in the Atebubu-Amenten District of the Bono East Region of Ghana.Ghana has experienced several changes in the agricultural sector and in the exploitation of natural resources. The campaign for afforestation and the desire for farmers to cultivate cash crop have increasingly led to the cultivation of tree crops like teak, mango, orange, and cashew nut. These crops, unlike yam, require that land should be in the hands of a farmer for a very long period of time if not permanently. Hence, such lands become alienated from the yam farmers. There are calls for mechanization of agriculture in Ghana where machines and chemicals like pesticides, and fertilizers will be used to enhance agricultural production instead of depending on manual and old-fashioned production system based on cutlass and hoe. As a result, large tracts of land have been brought under intensive and continuous cultivation. The trees on such plots are stumped and such lands because of the intensive nature of cultivation do not allow for longer fallow period that would ensure land regeneration essential for yam cultivation. Consequently, the larger the land converted to mechanized farming, the smaller the land left for yam farming because yam is still cultivated under the traditional system.The Atebubu-Amanten District is located in the north-eastern transition zone of the newly created Bono East Region of Ghana. The districtis characterized by an estimated population of 105,938 inhabitants (GSS 2012). The Atebubu-Amanten District covers an area of about 2,624 square kilometres. It shares boundaries with the Pru West District to the north, the Sene West District to the east, Kintampo South and Nkoranza North Districts to the west, all in the Bono East Region. To the south, it is bounded by two districts in the Ashanti Region namely Ejura Sekyedumase and Sekyere Afram
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