BOOSTING FOOD PRODUCTION (JAN 07, 2010)

RISING food prices on the world market last year resulted in widespread social unrest in certain countries, including some of our neighbours in the sub-region.
We know of countries where upward adjustments in the prices of rice led to the overthrow of their governments.
Food is one of the three basic necessities of life, the other two being shelter and clothing. Homelessness can somehow be contained by the people, but hunger, even if for a day, cannot be countenanced.
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) of any country is driven mainly by the performance of the food group. Thus, when food prices remain stable or drop significantly, inflation rates also go down.
In the fight to beat down the inflation pressures on the economy, the Daily Graphic thinks the focus should be on agriculture. For there is no way we can gain the respect of our counterparts in the comity of nations if we continue to carry bowls to beg for food handouts.
The Daily Graphic will not suggest that our governments over the years have not done anything to stimulate food production in the country.
All our governments have put in place policies to encourage farming but the outcomes fall below expectation.
Perhaps, the time has come for us, as a nation, to revisit the Operation Feed Yourself (OFY) programme that spurred on majority of Ghanaians to turn every available space into backyard farms.
But the question is how do we put in place a programme in the agricultural sector that will attract so much public response as the OFY received in the 1990s?
Every regime since the overthrow of the Acheampong administration has recognised agriculture as the key to the revival of the national economy but the policies put in place did not motivate the people, especially the youth, to return to the land.
Figures released by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture paint quite a positive picture of the performance of the sector last year, creating about 47,000 jobs.
Moves to modernise agriculture and attract the youth onto the land will not make the desired impact in isolation.
It has to be tackled in a holistic manner so that conditions in the countryside, where agricultural activities take place, will be improved to motivate the youth to take to the land.
The decision by the government to transform the rural economy will go a long way to put a hold on the migration of the youth to the cities to look for non-existent jobs.
Indeed, conditions in the countryside are not the best to encourage the youth to stay there to help the country to produce food at affordable prices to feed the people.
However, the statistics show that positive results can only be achieved not by magic but by deliberate and well-designed policies.
The Daily Graphic, therefore, calls on the government to step up its support for the Youth in Agriculture programme and spread it to all the districts of the country, and as well introduce subsidies for our farmers.
We urge our government not to listen to the development partners who insist that we should stop subsidies to our farmers because besides the subsidies that the advanced countries extend to their farmers, they also create ready markets for them and even buy the produce whenever there is a glut.
The Daily Graphic believes we have the resources, both human and material, to change the lives of our people provided we seek local solutions to our challenges.
So far, the figures look good but we need to do more, including encouraging our people to “eat what we grow and grow what we eat”.