The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Agribusiness Chamber, Anthony Morrison, has said the government needs to do more for farmers in order for agribusiness to boom and to also boost the economy amidst Covid-19.
Speaking to Jonnie Hughes on TV3‘s New Day programme Friday, November 6 in connection with the National Farmer’s Day celebration, Mr Morrison noted that the agric sector is bedeviled with challenges that must be addressed immediately.
“Government should do more for farmers, there is still more to be done for the people in Agri-business sectors, there is still more to be done for farmers to increase their technology and reduce interest rates and also speed up access to credit and reduce post-harvest losses,” he said.
He added: “Good access of roads should be done in most of the agriculture sector areas, provision of electricity to commercial farms, so that farmers can have 100 percent activities on their farms.
“The telecommunications ought to help farmers to reach out to their data systems on their farmers to make farmers stay on their farms to carry out businesses anytime they want.”
Meanwhile, Mr Solomon Kojo Kusi, a 55-year-old farmer from the Jomoro District of the Western Region, has been named the National Best Farmer for the year 2020.
He received a GH¢570,000 cash prize, an equivalent of a two-bedroom house at an event held at Techiman in the Bono East Region.
Nana Kofi Drobo IV of Wenchi in the Bono East Region emerged the first runner-up.
The second-runner up was Mahmoud Mohammed Awal from Zabzugu in the Northern Region.
During the event, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo noted that his administration has made a number of investment to grow the agric sector.
He revealed that he inherited a very weak sector of the economy that was doing between 0.9 percent in 2014 and 2.9 percent in 2016.
These statistics, he said, fell short of the targets for member states of the African Union (AU).
“In the immediate years before my assumption of office the performance of the agriculture sector was nothing short of abysmal, evidenced by the growth rates of 0.9% in 2014 and 2.9% in 2016, well below the African Union target of 6 per cent for Members states.
“In order to remedy the situation, the Akufo-Addo government took the firms decision to embark on a well-thought through programme for the modernization and transformation of Ghana’s agriculture.
“This include increasing productivity on smallholding farms; enhancing food security; diversifying agricultural export earnings; promoting agro-industrialization and import substitution; and creating jobs for the youth.
“The programme for Planting for Food and Jobs has since evolved, over the years, to reflect the comprehensive nature of Government’s strategy to improve agriculture with introduction of five modules i.e food crops, planting for export and rural development, rearing for foods and jobs, Greenhouse villages and farm mechanization and Agro-processing.”
By Emmanuel Asante|3news.com|Ghana