GHANA’S AGRIC SECTOR NEEDS CURRENT PRACTICAL UPDATE -VODEC Financialization of the food market has led to distortion in food prices that may have nothing to do with basic demand and supply and unattractiveness of Agriculture to not only Ghanaian entrepreneurs but also younger generations. Food prices in Ghana are in a rise, because of the imports of our foods and global price changes automatically which affect domestic prices and various reasons such as bad weather conditions. Deepening the woes of the Ghanaian farmer is the subsidies enjoyed by developed country farmers whose cost of production is therefore low. Voice Of Developing Communities (VODEC), expresses shock at these years theme: ‘’Reducing Post-Harvest Losses for sustainable food security and nutrition’’ for the farmer’s day celebration which will be held in Amasaman, in the Ga West Municipality coming tomorrow 29th November, 2013 and the national event which will be held on December 7, at Sogakope in the South Tongu District in the Volta Region. The issue of Genetically Modified Organism which has been making news in our dailies recently needs to be taken seriously without delay. GM Foods pose a serious health risk in the areas of toxicology, allergy and immune function, reproductive health, metabolic, physiological and genetic health.” Observation of animals fed GMOs reveal that if GMOs are allowed into our food chain, Ghanaians are at risk of: Infertility, Immune deregulation, Accelerated Aging etc. Government urgently needs to wake up and rise to the challenge and halt the inclusion of GMOs in our food chain and signing the Plant Breeders Bill and also put up a programme, to make farming an attractive sector by the national meteorological services predicting an accurate weather in making agriculture a scientific tool for developing our economy as we in VODEC cultivate a one (1) acre plot of vegetables at Abbessey-Pokuase near Amasaman in the Ga West Municipality in support of our existing one (1) acre plantation, Maize, Cocoyam, Cassava etc. Combination of crisis, political leadership, reforms, supportive conditions and managing the stakes between potential gainers and losers, all played their role as is often the case out of a crisis of food insecurity, through which the leaders should managed carefully to make a case for reform. Peasantry constitutes the overwhelming majority of all agricultural producers in the country, where we should ensure the production of raw materials for agro industry. Incentives like subsidies, good credit schemes are to be implemented to draw more people into the agro-industry and stop the importation of maize from USA and rice from Thailand. The young who should be taking over from the aged peasant and subsistent farmer and turning agric-business are not interested anymore rather after white color jobs examples public servant lawyers, police soldiers, accountants, Ministers, Member of Parliaments, District Chief Executives’ etc. and not even thinking about a garden near to his or her backyard. Agriculture in Ghana has remained largely a non scientific and non-technology driven venture, depending not only on rain but also manual tools like cutlass and hoe and irrigation and the use of tractors play a minor role . Climate change and its effects of both drought and flood are also seen as contributing to the high prices of food in Ghana, unpredictable rainfall patterns have become rampant in some part of Ghana, examples northern eastern and brong ahafo to the extent that farmers can hardly rely on their time-tested knowledge of the weather to plant their crops. There should be a healthy link between small and large scale farmers for their mutual benefit where we should pursue a policy in infrastructure development such as the construction of small scale irrigation schemes and organic fertilizer by generating and transferring relevant technologies, as well as provide extension services and benefits of research findings and easy facilities to farmers in all sector of agriculture With unreliable national meteorological services and illiterates, farmers who cannot make little sense of whatever meteorological information is, makes agriculture unscientific. We need a radical shift in our agric system that answers our foods needs, food security lie in the takeover of huge tracks of land for agricultural purposes by feeding Ghanaians at affordable cost, ensuring food security, less dependence on imported food can solve food crisis. The emphasis should be on the use of science and technology to revolutionalize agriculture where transformation of our agric to evolve beyond food security thresholds of small holder farmers to providing for our industrial needs demands the emergence of medium to larger scale commercial farming. Cocoa producers need to be paid realistic and fair prices whilst ensuring that the cocoa farmer is not returned to the clutches of the cocoa broker by also intensifying the investment in the processing of agriculture produce to stabilize the incomes of farmers and also maximize our national earnings.
Posted on: Thu, 28 Nov 2013 20:03:11 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015