NDC performs poorly in the agricultural sector - Minority

The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) in parliament has accused the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) of engaging in intellectual dishonesty following claims it has carried out significant projects in the agricultural sector.

According to the Minority in Parliament, despite a solid foundation laid by the Kufuor administration in the agricultural sector, the NDC was still performing abysmally in terms of achievements.

Citing cocoa as an example, ranking member of the Food and Agriculture Committee, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, said the bumper harvest in the 2010/2011 season was due to the NPP’s hard work which cannot be claimed by the NDC.

Speaking at a press conference in parliament on Tuesday October 4, Dr Akoto said: “In most of the cases, they (NDC) select only two years to demonstrate growth of the whole period of eight years – 2008-2015.This is tantamount to intellectual dishonesty to say the least.”

Touching on fertiliser distribution, Dr Akoto noted: “The NDC selected the year 2008 and the year 2013 to show that distribution had increased over the whole period of eight years. They failed to mention that there was no distribution of subsidised fertiliser in the year 2014, and that only 90,000 metric tonnes out of the 180,000 that they put in the budget were distributed in the year 2015. That takes no mention at all in the manifesto.”

On rice production, the NPP said the NDC in its manifesto selected the year 2008 and 2014. “You have a whole period of eight years but they just showed numbers for 2008 and 2014 to show that rice production has also increased over the period of 2008-2015. What they failed to show is that rice production was down in the intervening years that is 2009-2013 and after 2014. What is worse is that they failed to mention that rice imports rose from 425,390 metric tonnes in 2008 to 630,200 metric tonnes in 2015. These figures are important…”