Akufo-Addo pledges ‘full’ agric value-chain dev’t

President Nana Akufo-Addo has pledged to pursue a “full agriculture value chain” strategy, to create jobs in the areas of storage, transportation, processing, packaging and marketing of agricultural produce.

 “Government will pursue a value addition strategy aimed at rapidly developing new and stable market for farmers,” the president said whilst opening the 68th Annual New Year School in Accra, under the theme ‘Promoting National Development Through Agricultural Modernisation: The Role of ICT.”

He added that: “We need to generate more wealth in the agriculture sector to be able to improve the livelihoods of farmers and fisher folks and help grow the national economy.”

As part of the strategy, he mentioned that district assemblies will be assigned specific roles in agricultural development and will adopt policies specifically to support women in agriculture.

The country’s agricultural sector, which continues to be the anchor of the economy, has not performed well in recent years. In the past eight years, the annual rate of growth of the sector has declined from 7.4 percent in 2008 to 2.4 percent in 2015. This is below the six percent annual growth target set out in the Maputo Deceleration of 2003.

Again, the country’s population has quadrupled to 28.4 by the beginning of 2017, from 6.7million in 1957.

Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, Minister Designate for Food and Agriculture, delivering a keynote address, hinted that government plans to launch a national campaign to be christened “Planting for Food and Jobs,” to encourage all citizens, both urban and rural, to take up farming as a full or part time activity.

The campaign, he said, which will involve the production of maize, rice, soybean, sorghum and vegetables, structured along the lines of the erstwhile ‘Operation Feed Yourself’ programme of the 1970s. Other crops, he said, will be adopted in subsequent years.

He explained that the concept is to be anchored on the provision of improved seeds, supply of fertilizers, provision of dedicated extension services, marketing and e-Agriculture.

To initiate the Campaign, the Districts Assemblies will be tasked to identify and register progressive farmers in each of the 216 districts and the selected farmers will be supported with subsidized improved seeds, fertilizers and extension services.

“To ensure that adequate quantities of improved seeds are made available for the campaign in the coming 2017 planting season, the Grains and Legumes Development Board and Certified seed growers will be assisted to deliver supplies…

“In the urban areas, the production of vegetables will be promoted in backyard gardens and open spaces.

He added that: “Government institutions and private companies like breweries and food processors will be encouraged to invest in plantations for food and raw material production.

“Prisons, hospitals, schools, colleges and universities will be given incentives to establish their farms.

He said, among other things, that: “All citizens will be persuaded to see it as a national duty to cultivate a crop or two to support the change the government campaign.”

“I would like to appeal to all Ghanaians to roll up their sleeves and put their shoulders to the wheel for rapid agricultural growth, with the coming farming season beginning March-April 2017.

The campaign intends to use the large pool of graduates of agricultural colleges who have been trained at the tax payer’s expense, but who are jobless, as extension officers for clusters of farmers.

“These officers are to ensure that farmers adopt best technological practices for increased productivity. They will be supported by staff of the Departments of Agriculture in the Districts Assemblies.”

He assured a ready market for the farm produce of the campaign, adding that the marketing functions of the Grains and Legumes Development Board will be revived as specified in the Act of its establishment (Act 324),1970. This arrangement is to forestall the situation where farmers are saddled with produce after harvest, suffering large post-harvest losses.

 “It is only through agriculture that we can generate jobs in large numbers to put a dent in the youth unemployment and also produce the needed raw materials to support our promise of ‘One District One Factor”.

The Campaign, he said, is a targeting to create some 750,000 jobs in the coming 2017 farming season, a figure expected to double in the next farming season in 2018.

The initiative, when fully implemented, will generate  an additional farm income  worth over  GHC 1.3 billion and will require the use of ICT in the identification and registration of farmers, supply of farm inputs and the transportation and marketing of farm produce.

Professor Ebenezer Oduro Owusu, Vice-Chancellor, University Ghana, said deploying ICT in agriculture calls for serious approaches and fundamental shift in policy and orientation of governments, policymakers and end-users such as farmers and relevant stakeholders.

 “Modernising agriculture must not be merely in the manifestos of political parties; rather strategies of governments must sufficiently be in place for an ICT-enabled transformation of the entire agriculture sector,” he said.