A CASE FOR PEASANT FARMERS (OCT 29)

GHANA’S economy is agrarian and it is likely to remain so for a very long time.
In our attempt to improve productivity in the agricultural sector, many novelty ideas have been supported by past and present governments.
The Farmers Day, instituted more than 20 years ago, has been sustained, irrespective of the government in power at any period.
Recently, the government introduced a pension scheme for cocoa farmers and re-introduced the Youth-in-Agriculture programme to support the youth to cultivate the land.
These are laudable initiatives which must be expanded to cover many farmers, including peasants, if we are to expand the frontiers of food production.
Unfortunately, peasant farmers feel excluded from policies designed to motivate farmers to improve the food basket and reduce our expenditure on food.
The DAILY GRAPHIC thinks the time has come for the expansion of agricultural services and support to cover peasant farmers for them to expand their yields. There are many of these peasant farmers across the length and breadth of the country who, with a little support, can grow to become big-time farmers.
The DAILY GRAPHIC believes that the government’s policy on agriculture should give more space to peasant farmers, whose small contributions collectively bring food to the tables of many Ghanaians in the country.
As reported in yesterday’s issue of the DAILY GRAPHIC, the members of the Ghana Trade and Livelihood Coalition, which articulates the concerns of peasant farmers, has observed that 80 per cent of all food staples are produced by small-scale farmers.
However, there seems not to be any co-ordinated policy that has been fashioned out to support this very important group of people.
That the Farmers Day does not even recognise the efforts of peasant farmers is a direct affront to the country’s policy on agriculture.
The DAILY GRAPHIC believes that any agricultural policy that neglects small-scale farmers is bound to fail because it is support to such farmers that will ensure their growth to become mechanised farmers in the not-too-distant future.
Support to such farmers is not something beyond the means of the government or state institutions tasked with the management of the agricultural sector.
Support in the form of agricultural extension services, fertilisers, access to credit and technical support is just one of the few things peasant farmers need.
Again, the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) which Ghana has signed up to is a classic example of how the government hopes to support farming activities in the country, especially peasant farmers, with improved access to markets and inputs.
The DAILY GRAPHIC, therefore, adds its voice to the call for a comprehensive programme that will rope in peasant farmers into the overall agricultural policy framework of the country.
It is our conviction that such support will help to attract the youth into agriculture, while serving as a tool for poverty alleviation and economic independence from food handouts.