The Right to Food Policy Advisor at Actionaid, Ms. Anna Antwi has called on government to show a strong political will by supporting the agriculture and food sectors of the country.

According to her, the important role of agriculture in the national economy makes policies in that sector an intricate part of the broader national policy and that its effective implementation leads to sustainable growth in incomes and poverty reduction.

Ms. Antwi indicated that recent policy reforms over the past decade have not benefited the Ghanaian farmer, since the Economic Recovery and Structural Adjustment Programmes (ERP / SAP) instigated by the World Bank and IMF in the early 80's led to the abolishing on farm inputs, privatization of the production and distribution of improved seed and fertilizer etc.

According to her other disadvantages of the reforms included the abolishing of guaranteed minimum producer prices for selected food commodities, allowing the open market to set prices and effective participation of private traders in the distribution systems, the abolishing of low interest rates for borrowing for agricultural purposes and the commercializing of the operations of the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB).

She said the impact of some of these reforms led to the less government support for the sector and limited market access for local production which made farmers to be poor with the resultant food insecurity.

Speaking at the opening of a two-day workshop on Ghana's Agricultural Sector Policy with emphasis on food policy organized by the Ghana National Association of Poultry Farmers (GNAPF) in Accra, Ms. Antwi said the government must put citizens at the heart of all negotiations and agreements.

This the government can do by supporting small-scale farmers and infant industries to grow. She suggested that the government could also have a human resource monitoring team in place to check progress in the food and agric sector and harmonize policies of Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to reflect sustainability.

In his opening remarks the Chairman of GNAPF , Mr. Kenneth Quartey indicated that the aim of the forum was to get a better consensus on what exactly Ghana's agricultural policy is and to come to a compromise on how agriculture can meet the challenges in the midst of the world food crisis.

Regarding the upcoming general elections, he said all the political parties have repeatedly made remarks that agriculture is the backbone of the economy, but these repeated statements have the tendency to lull many , particularly agricultural practitioners into a false sense of comfort .

"When agriculture continues to be the one of the top two contributors to GDP and the largest employer of labour, it appears politically wise to promise heaven to agriculture in Ghana but too easy to do little when political power is attained," he added.

Mr. Quartey said that after almost eight years, the present government has now come out with an agricultural policy which has been approved by cabinet and that the document leaves no doubt that the country is failing to support the backbone of the economy.

According to him the document points out that credit to the agricultural sector has dropped from 12% in 1998 to 5% in 2006.