"Following the discovery of oil in 2010, Ghana is on the road to becoming one of Africa's more economically successful countries. But it is not quite there yet and still ranks 138th out of 187 countries in the 2014 Human Development Index.The most obvious signs of this poverty are found in the north of the country, where most of the population are small scale subsistence farmers who have to battle with poor soil quality, an erratic rainy season, and recurrent floods and droughts. These problems in turn often lead to serious food shortages and high rates of malnutrition. According to the World Food Programme (WFP), four out of 10 children under the age of five in northern Ghana are chronically malnourished, meaning they will not be able to meet their full growth potential. Some of them, to put it even more starkly, will die for lack of food.This is why, despite its sunnier long term prospects, Ghana still receives tens of millions of dollars' worth of food aid from the international community.But while these generous annual donations, from the WFP and others, are carefully calculated to provide sustenance to all those in dire need, somehow they never prove to be enough.The food arrives in bulk at government-run distribution centres and then quickly runs out. All too often those in search of help turn up to be told that that stocks are again running low or that promised deliveries have not yet been made.At the King's Village Health Centre in Tamale, northern Ghana, which has helped thousands of malnourished babies and children, operations director Dr James Duah is puzzled about these shortages and worried about the consequences.""About 40 percent of all under-fives in the communities here are stunted and malnourished. It has an effect on mental abilities ... If you are malnourished, [if] you are hungry, right from childhood it affects who you become in the future,"" he says.