Public Agenda (Accra)
9 November 2009
editorial
Accra — At a recent durbar held in Ashaiman at the instance of the Ghana Trade and Livelihoods Coalition (GTLC), farmers drawn from different parts of Ghana came together to register their displeasure for not receiving the needed support from government.
Rose Owusu of the Catholic Women Association who came all the way from the Brong Ahafo Region to attend the durbar said government had made no special package available to women farmers, most of whom she believes are breadwinners.
On his part, Emmanuel Doe, 2008 Best Onion farmer for the Ashaiman District, said he would be shame faced to tell the audience what his prize entailed because it was nothing to write home about. The prize, he told Public Agenda, did not go beyond a knapsack sprayer, a pair of wellington boots, sachets of tooth paste and a few other provisions. His plea, therefore, was that government should make the annual award one that would help farmers "increase our productivity."
The concerns of the representative number of farmers summed up the frustrations of Ghanaian farmers in that their work has largely remained at the level of subsistence regardless of the various manifestos and GPRS documents among others.
Cocoa farmers are, for instance, not happy about the producer price government pays for their work. In the wake of the Ivorian crisis and due to better prices in that country, a lot of Ghana's cocoa is being smuggled there for sale.
Governments have and continue to pay lip service to agricultural development even though the country aims to attain a middle income status with a per capita income of US$1000 by the year 2015. The sector is said to contribute about 36 - 40% to GDP whilst employing about 57% of the labour force.
If government is truly committed to the attainment of a middle income status by the year 2015, the attention it pays to the agricultural sector will be key.
Government would certainly have to make realistic interventions in modernizing Ghana's agriculture by investing in mechanized agriculture, irrigation and improved technology.
Support to Ghanaian farmers should go beyond the few handouts to goods and services that would help improve their productivity and at the end of the day, Ghana would be the better for it.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2009 Public Agenda. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
