Our farmers deserve better; PNC’ll do it differently – Apasera

A future People’s National Convention (PNC) government shall restructure the Agricultural Development Bank using the state’s stake in the bank to redirect its focus and mandate from commercially viable areas to agriculture, David Apasera, presidential candidate of the PNC has said.

According to Mr Apasera, this would ensure that farmers have access to competitively low-interest loans to increase production in the agricultural sector.

Congratulating Ghanaian farmers on the occasion of Farmers’ Day on Friday, 6 November 2020, Mr Apasera said the average Ghanaian farmer still grapples with teething challenges in the quest to till the land or rear some livestock either on subsistence or commercial scale.

“These bottlenecks confronting the farmers ought to be fought and cleared for farming to assume its rightful place in the lives of Ghanaians,” he noted.

He stated that issues of land ownership, lack of access to credit facilities, lack of access to agrochemicals and improved seeds as well as the unavailability of extension services are still rife and a major concern for the Ghanaian farmer.

Mr Apasera added that despite a number of interventions by successive governments to deal with the above challenges in order to make agriculture attractive and to make the sector contribute its fullest potential to GDP, there is still a lot left to be done considering the results currently.

Therefore, “under, my presidency come 2021, God Willing, I shall personally pay special attention to the agricultural sector and the issues of the average Ghanaian farmer. I shall institute special insurance for all farmers to cushion them against losses arising from flooding, bushfires and post-harvest losses among others.

“To deal with the issue of land ownership, a PNC government shall acquire large parcels of land using the Land Bank System to make arable and grazing land easily available and accessible to farmers across the country,” he stated.

He assured farmers of a better deal under a future PNC government which would have farmers celebrated every day and not just on the occasion of Farmers’ Day alone.