Some farmers across the country have advised government to pay attention to the Agriculture sector by injecting funds to improve crop production and food processing.
Monitoring various views of farmers across the country during the Farmers Day celebration last Friday, some stakeholders who lamented over a decline in food production blamed the situation on non-availability of farm inputs to farmers in the hinterlands.
“Agriculture has been the mainstay of Ghana’s economy for a long time; it is an essential part of this country’s growth, hence it must not be neglected. Take poultry farmers for example, feed for the industry is scarce and costly”, a farmer said in the Ashanti region said.
Other farmers in cocoa growing areas such as Mumuni Camp in the Prestea District of the Western region also complained over bad road networks that increased the cost of transporting cocoa seeds to Tarkwa.
In the 2016 budget read on the floor of parliament by Finance Minister, Mr. Seth Terkper, the sector grew by a marginal 0.04 percent in 2014, showing a decline of about 70 percent.
The crop sub-sector, where most of the nearly five million farmers are located, shrunk by 1.7 percent.
In the same budget, the sector is expected to receive GH₵501,501,708.00 out of which the Government of Ghana (GoG) is committed to provide GH₵322,094,227.00.
The remaining funds which has not yet been budgeted for has been laid at the doorstep of the sector ministry to fund, while the government looks to Development Partners for the surplus.
Hundreds of farmers rewarded
Meanwhile, over two thousand Ghanaian farmers and fishers have been rewarded by government for their enormous contribution to the growth of the economy.
Farmers’ Day, which is celebrated annually on the first Friday of December, is aimed at motivating and rewarding farmers for the role they play in the provision of both food and cash crop.
This year’s celebration was under the theme “Transform Ghana: Investing in Agriculture.”
Government’s assurance to revamp the sector
Minister of Agriculture, Mr. Fifi Kwetey has assured that government is putting measures in place to boost investment in the sector despite the steady decline in growth.
“The investments we are talking about is not only about government, we are talking about investment coming from the people who are coming from the various value chain of agriculture. In what ways can we get them increasing their own investment into their various sectors in order for us to see much more productivity”, Mr. Kwetey said.
The Minister added that his outfit is adopting ways of encouraging individuals to invest their monies into the sector so that “instead of keeping their little savings into treasury bills which earns them little money, they could think of how they can leverage those monies into agriculture production.”
This year’s national event took place at the Bolgatanga Girls Senior High School Park in the Upper East Region.
In all 78 farmers from all the ten regions of the country picked various categories of awards.
