A country which is not able to develop its agricultural
sector very well is unlikely to successfully carry
through her development agenda. All over the world,
the state of any nation’s development is directly linked to the
agricultural sector.
Currently, the local market is dominated by foreign imported
rice to the detriment of our gallant farmers. The huge patronage
and promotions of foreign food and imported agricultural pro-
duce have taken a centre stage in our media while local agricul-
tural produce receive none or little such promotion. Ironically,
this impedes the government’s initiative and our country’s agri-
cultural drive. It is also taking a toll on the incomes of our farm-
ers and fishermen due to lack of capacity to compete fairly.
Business Day Ghana thinks that the appetite and continuous
patronage of imported agricultural produce in our country is a
disincentive to our national agricultural development.
Report says Rwanda had around 60 per cent of its masses
living below the poverty line in the year 2000 but today, the
poverty rate had been reduced to less than 45 per cent on the
back of agricultural sector-driven accelerated economic growth.
The same goes for China, Indonesia, and a host of other coun-
tries where agricultural sector-driven development created jobs,
raised incomes, and reduced poverty levels.
However, in Ghana, the story is different. Poverty is invad-
ing the country like a swarm of locusts. Despite impressive
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rates in the last decade,
the percentage of Ghanaians living in poverty has increased to
the extent that some families in the country are forced to cut the
amount and quality of food they eat each day. Meat, a source of
protein, is no more an option on the menu of many families.
People now opt for less nutritional meals – just to put something
into the stomach— which has a bad effect on a child’s growth.
The Ghanaian farmer or fisherman is the most deprived in
terms of living conditions. Nonetheless, the Ghanaian farmer or
fisherman never embarks on any strike action but continues to
toil to feed this nation even in very hard times.
Ghana, a middle-income country and a signatory to the Mil-
lennium Development Goals, had up to 2015 to halve extreme
poverty but conditions are still worst in the rural areas where a
sizable number of Ghanaians still live on less than one dollar a
day.
It is regrettable that the agricultural sector, which employs
about 60 per cent of the Ghanaian workforce and possesses the
highest potential for employment generation, is being neglected.
Corruption, poor leadership and mismanagement of public re-
sources provide the most convincing explanations for this ironic
consequence.
The fact that agriculture has been a main contributor to
poverty reduction in Rwanda is not a coincidence, considering
the fact that the country is one of the few countries on the
African continent that meet the Comprehensive Africa Agricul-
ture Development Programme (CAADP) recommended target of
10 per cent agriculture expenditure in the national budget.
Also, the clearly demonstrated commitment of Rwanda’s po-
litical leadership to a broad-based consultative and inclusive ap-
proach to its economic development agenda, enshrined in
transparency and accountability to the citizens, is in no doubt.
Good enough, Ghana is rethinking and redefining agricul-
ture. In Ghana now, agriculture is not farming – it is business.
Agricultural activities now, according to the government’s agri-
culture transformation plan and many farmer-based organisa-
tions, cover the entire value chain. Even though the plan is on
the ground and very robust, we are looking forward to a sincere
execution of the stout plan.
Business Day therefore urges the Government of Ghana to
take a cue from the Rwandan experience by demonstrating the
required amount of political will and commitment to pursuing
vigorously its current agricultural transformation programme.
We believe doing so will create the jobs and income levels re-
quired to push more Ghanaians out of poverty, thereby ensuring
that growth is pro-poor.
We are aware of the Government initiatives aimed at improv-
ing agriculture in the country, and we wish to acknowledge these
efforts. Among them are the youth in agriculture programme that
had created a number of job for the teeming Ghanaian youth.
