Parliament paid respect to farmers and fishers

Accra, Dec. 6, GNA - Ghanaian farmers and fishermen on Thursday received showers of appreciation from Parliament for their gallant and hard work in feeding the nation.

Members of the lawmaking House however proposed a new paradigm for the celebration of the 22-year old agriculture fiesta, the National Farmers Day, which falls on Friday, December 7 2007.

They suggested a shift from the traditional celebration of the Day with awards including houses, tractors, farm implements, inputs and personal household effects to government's conscious efforts to implement various well thought-out policies and interventions to support agriculture to move the nation into a middle-income status. Aside district and regional celebration, the nation would honour the most distinguished farmers and fishermen at a grand durbar in Wa, the capital of the Upper West Region.

This year, the Day, which has been organized uninterrupted since 1985 to honour Ghana's hard working farmers, is on the theme: "Ghana @ 50: Progress and Challenges of Sustainable Agriculture".

Mr Paul Collins Appiah-Ofori, Chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Agriculture in a statement said, "Mr Speaker, our farmers deserve our honour because they produce about 40 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 40 per cent of the earnings of the country. "They again need to be honoured because it is through their toil and sweat that people such as we and those in various towns and cities are fed.

"... From a humble beginning of token donations of Wellington boots, pieces of wax prints and machetes in 1985, the farmers now receive tractors, pickup vehicles and in the recent past four-bedroom houses.

He acknowledged the improvement in mechanizing agriculture but said more needed to be done by way of improvement in transportation, processing and research to reduce post-harvest losses and make agriculture more attractive to investors. "Only 13 per cent of agricultural produce from this country are processed. Processing of vegetables such as tomatoes is almost non-existence although vegetables experienced the greatest post-harvest losses.

"There may also be the need to invest in the processing of residue, by-product of oil palm, tomato, vegetables and fruits." Mr Appiah-Ofori enumerated government plans in the 2008 budget to remedy the shortcomings, some of which are the rehabilitation of food storage facilities, tarring of 531 kilometre of feeder roads in cocoa growing areas and a proposed establishment of an effective capacity for control of common pets and diseases of root and tuber crops. Government also proposes in the budget to ensure that all economic agents apply science and technology to support priority areas in agriculture.

Dr Ahmed Alhassan Yakubu, Ranking Member on Agriculture in a contribution said Ghanaian farmers needed to be proud despite the difficulties.

He added that he looked forward to the day when the Ghanaian farmer would be proud to compete with any farmer in any part of the world.

Mr Joseph Henry Mensah, NPP-Sunyani East, gave farmers assurance that government would not blindly allow the financial institutions to demand credit conditions that farmers could not service.

He said even if there was a reduction in the number of people in agriculture government would make sure that they continue to play their important role and adopt measures to increase agricultural output to form the basis for the country to attain a middle-income status. Dr Benjamin Kumbuor, NDC-Lawra Nandom observed that despite the celebration in the Upper West Region in his constituency, which had 73 per cent of its labour in farming it continued to disturbingly import food from other districts of the Upper West Region and other regions. Moreover, the farmers had low income.

Dr Kumbuor called for the nation to have role-models who the youth would look up to, for encouragement to enter into farming and suggested that the processes for land acquisition and tenureship should be institutionalized as capital acquisition to make it easier to get land for farming.

Mr. Joseph Aidooh, NPP-Amenfi East suggested that government embarked on irrigation to ensure an all-year round farming, especially in the Northern sector, which had erratic rainfall. Mr. Isaac Kwame Asiamah, NPP-Atwima Mponua called on the Ghana Cocobod to include Members of Parliament and the District Chief Executives in the Cocobod Scholarship Award Scheme, which is meant for farmers wards in second cycle institutions. Mr. Kenneth Dzirasah, NDC-South Tongu raised a finger on the selection of the National Best Farmer.

He said a Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Mr Clement Eledi had said on a television programme that the Ministry of Agriculture had, on two occasions altered the choice of awardees for the prize of the National Best Farmer despite a recommendation by the committee of experts assigned to short-list competitors.

Mr Dzirasah called for transparency, devoid of lobbying and political considerations in the choice of National Best Farmer. He gave a plus for the cultivation of jathropha, which, he said, could do well in all kinds of soils and survive for 50 years. Mr Dzirasah called for equal attention to cultivation of mango and pineapple and suggested that separate boards should be established to give them greater attention as alternative cash crops for the nation. 06 Dec. 07