MAKING AGRICULTURE MORE ATTRACTIVE (JULY 30, 2009)

FROM a net exporter of staples such as maize and rice in the 1970s, Ghana today imports rice to the tune of several hundred millions of cedis per annum.
The country imports maize and sometimes plantain and cocoyam to supplement local production, which falls below demand.
It is, however, becoming increasingly clear that we do not want to make agriculture very attractive to the youth. After 52 years of independence our agriculture is still largely rain-fed with a very small percentage of the land under irrigation to facilitate farming activities throughout the year.
Agriculture is also a high risk venture for our banks because it is difficult for the banks to lend at concessionary rates to farmers with deposits mobilised from customers. Thus, our farmers compete for the scarce facilities at the banks with traders at almost the same rates. We cannot stimulate agricultural production under these harsh conditions.
The challenge with food production transcends the unfriendly land tenure system. Inputs which are critical for increased food production such as seeds, fertilisers and farm implements are delivered late to the farmers or supplied at exorbitant prices when the farming season is over.
We are being told that the weather is very conducive for a bumper harvest this fishing season but this golden opportunity is being frustrated by the lack of premix fuel in the system.
Ghanaians who witnessed the successes attained during the Operation Feed Yourself (OFY) programme under the Acheampong regime look back to those glorious days with nostalgia and with high expectations that pretty soon our government will put together a package that will make agriculture the centrepiece of our development agenda.
The DAILY GRAPHIC thinks the decision by the government to set up an Agricultural Development Fund through which farmers and fishermen can borrow at reduced interest rates is a step in the right direction.
This initiative will provide the banks with no option but to lend at affordable rates to the farmers and end the perennial struggle that those in the agricultural sector such as farmers, fishermen and poultry farmers go through, competing with traders to access credit at commercial rates from the banks.
It is our hope that the committee that the Minister of Food and Agriculture, Mr Kwesi Ahwoi, said had been tasked to work out the modalities for the implementation of the fund will hit the “ground running” immediately to get the package off the ground.
The DAILY GRAPHIC is concerned about our inability to feed ourselves, especially when we live in a country in which about 70 per cent of its population are engaged in agriculture and its related businesses.
The time has come for the government and all the stakeholders to work out the modalities to exploit our rich natural resources to become self-sufficient in food production.
The revival of the Youth-in-Agriculture programme introduced during the first administration of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), it is hoped, will galvanise the youth to take to agriculture.
The sages say “a hungry man is an angry man” and this saying is founded in the belief that most civil disturbances are fuelled by people in deprivation. It is not good enough to subject ourselves to deprivation in the midst of plenty.
Let us demonstrate our dignity as a people by ending our over-dependence on others to put food on our table.