Public Agenda (Accra)
Basiru Adam
9 November 2009
Accra — "If anyone calls you an ordinary farmer take the person to court" and the audience was beside itself with laughter.
"Yes," he continued, "we may not be ministers or parliamentarians but we are not ordinary. So if I call you honourable farmer you should respond."
These were the remarks of Ex- Staff Sergeant Emmanuel Amoak, Vice president of the Okyereko Cooperative Society at a recent farmers' durbar held in Ashaiman near Accra.
The durbar was put together by the Ghana Trade and Livelihoods Coalition (GTLC) to give the long suffering farmers of Ghana the opportunity to tell politicians to make good their endless promises of supporting the agricultural sector.
Rose Owusu of the Catholic Women Association came all the way from the Brong Ahafo Region to attend the durbar and her worry was that 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."
These farmers represented a cross section of the over 80% of Ghanaian farmers who are engaged in subsistence farming and most of whom are faced with challenges such as lack of capital or labor, lack of access to ready market, unavailability of land and post harvest losses.
Their concerns, as they came and went, made it clear that for the large part, the sweet talk about agricultural modernization or mechanization by successive governments of Ghana is yet to be backed by any pragmatic measures.
Ghana's agricultural sector is said to be dominated by small holder farmers with plots of land less than 1.5 hectares, on the average.
Productivity is generally low and volatile because of prevailing traditional farming systems of low application of technologies, poor agronomic practices and dependence on erratic rainfall.
Indeed, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture estimates that Ghana's agriculture may be operating at just 20% of its potential. As a consequence, Ghana continues to be a net food importer even though the agricultural sector contributes about 36 - 40% to GDP whilst employing about 57% of the labour force. Agriculture, it is said, also accounts for over 50% of foreign exchange earnings for Ghana.
Meanwhile, the overall national goal of Ghana is to "attain a middle income status with a per capita income of US$1000 by the year 2015 within a decentralized and democratic environment."
So during his time as Minister of Agriculture, Hon. Ernest Debrah told a German Trade Mission that "achievement of the national goal requires the agricultural sector to lead the process through accelerated growth."
In truth however, governments after the CPP and perhaps the early parts of the Acheampong regime, did very little by way of agricultural mechanization, irrigation and improved technologies.
In the case of irrigation for instance, whilst governments have not invested in building new ones, several irrigation dams built through Dr. Nkrumah's unappreciated effort in northern Ghana have been left to wither away.
The Ghana Irrigation Development Authority (GIDA) was established by the Supreme Military Council Decree 89 (SMCD) of 1977 "to explore all water resources for livelihood options in agriculture at appropriate scales for all communities and to formulate and execute plans to promote the development of land and water resources in Ghana for crop production, livestock watering, aquaculture, agricultural related industries and institutions within a sustainable environment."
Obviously, however, GIDA is today wheezing in its attempt to live up to its mandate.
Be that as things may in Ghana's agricultural sector, a return to the basics even shows a clear lack of reliable data such as would help any effective planning.
Addressing the 21st Session of African Commission on Agricultural Statistics (AFCAS) in Accra on October 28, 2009, Dr. Esther Bediako, Government Statistician, called for a complete overhaul of the country's agricultural statistic system. Her case was that even though Ghana obtains about a third of her GDP from agriculture, it was one of the most difficult sectors to obtain accurate and timely data. "As many governments work to increase productivity and output in agriculture, they should ensure that the required systems are instituted to generate the necessary basic information to affect policies, monitoring and evaluation of programme processes and outcomes," she said.
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