Public Agenda (Accra)
15 December 2008
Accra — Even before he bows out of office on January 9, President John Agyekum Kufuor is being accused of reneging on his promise to develop the cotton sector, as he did for the cocoa sector.
The President of Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana, Mr. Nasiru Adam said at a recent meeting with development communicators in Accra that the association had expected that the government would have extended the support it gave the cocoa sector to the cotton sector as well to turn the industry around.
Nasiru argued that like cocoa, cotton is the white gold of the northern part of the country and if supported, the industry could have positively impacted the lives of cotton farmers. "Unfortunately the presidential initiative on cotton is the only initiative that never worked", Nasiru said.
Nasiru said due to the neglect of the sector, only one cotton company is still in business out of eleven that were actively funding and marketing cotton in the north. "This has led to a decrease in the population of cotton farmers in the north", he disclosed.
'As soon as we get a new president on January 2009 , we shall step up the momentum to change trade policies in favour of cotton farmers", Nasiru said when pressed to explain the effort the association had made to get policy makers to share their plight. He explained that a booming cotton sector could have a positive multiplier effect on sectors like the garment and textile. He lamented the recent importation of police uniforms from South Africa, when Ghana could have conveniently used locally produced cotton and local tailors and seamstresses to produce the uniforms.
At the just ended meeting of the Association of African Cotton Producers (AProCA), Ghana, Benin, Burkina Faso and Senegal recommended the need for governments of cotton producing countries to take a second look at the cotton sub sector. This stems from the fact that in many West African countries revenue from cotton is all the farmers, their immediate and extended families depend on. But they are faced with plummeting world prices each year, besides the uneven competition from US and Chinese farmers as a result of huge subsidies by their governments.
In the view of Nasiru, if agriculture in Ghana and Africa is not given the support and protection, no youth will venture into the sector if the current generation of farmers leave the scene. Reports of cotton farmers in Mali and Burkina Faso committing suicide due to lack of market and falling prices of cotton are well documented.
The Communications Officer of AProCA, Dioma Komonsira urged the media and policy makers, especially elected representatives of the people to help cotton farmers through advocacy.
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