Accra, -- Parliament today spent two hours deliberating on ways and means to improve productivity in the cocoa industry and other croops. While some members called for the re-introduction of subsidies, others called for an increase in the producer price to reflect world market price to motivate farmers to increase productivity. This followed a statement to the house by Mr Samuel Oppong, NDC-Agona West, on the present state of the cocoa industry in the Agona district. Mr Oppong called on the Cocoa Services Division (CSD) in the district to re-examine its cocoa rehabilitation programme to save cocoa farms and farmers. He said the arrangement in which farmers are paid in instalments upon cutting, transplanting and for maintenance till the first harvest, is discouraging farmers from replanting cocoa. ''About 200 farmers have indicated their intention to grow crops other than cocoa because they cannot afford to buy seedlings'', he added Mr Oppong said the farmers would rather like the CSD to adopt the system in the Eastern region where all old cocoa trees were cut and farms replanted by the staff or hired labourers of the Divi The farmers were then paid to maintain the farms till their first harvest. Another problem in the district is the pledging of farms to money lenders at ridiculous rates by farmers. ''A cocoa farm which can give about 200,000 cedis a year is pledged for 400,000 cedis for 20 years. This is naked exploitation of economically disadvantaged farmers'', he said.
Mr Oppong appealed to the Agricultural Development Bank and the Cocobod to assist the farmers financially to save them from unscrupulous money lenders. Ms Theresa Nyarko Fofie, NDC-Nkoranza, spoke about the decline in the rural areas, saying that the best buildings are cocoa sheds while the farmers live in poverty. She wondered why there is so much talk about boosting cocoa production for export when most people cannot afford to buy maize for their families. In the view of the member, government should encourage cocoa farmers to divest and go into other food crops of importance. ''We should educate them. We should encourage them to do something else or we would have problems in future going on with cocoa, cocoa, cocoa.'' Mr Kwame Osei-Prempeh, NPP-Nsuta/Kwamang, said the poverty in the rural areas reflects the neglect the people have suffered from policy makers. Reacting to Ms Fofie's argument, Mr Osei-Prempeh said even if the farmers go into maize and other food crop production, they will still continue to be poor because of the lack of storage and marketing facilities.
Mr Mustapha Ali Iddris, NPP-Gukpegu/Sabongida, said people in Northern Ghana are willing to go into the agricultural sector but are prevented by the lack of tractors. Besides, the recent fuel shortages will not help in boosting food production in Northern Ghana. Mr Joe Donkor, NPP-Tano North, reacting to Ms Fofie's contribution, said maize is important but Ghana must produce more of each crop to get maximum returns. He said productivity in the agriculture sector has suffered because of the indiscriminate retrenchment of extension workers. The few who are in the system are over-stretched and that more are needed if any impact is to be made in the sector.
Mr Clement Bugase, a Deputy Minister of Agriculture, said 160 tractors recently imported from China have been distributed to help boost food production. Mr Osei Mensah Bonsu Kyei-Mensah, NPP-Old Tafo Suame, said since Tema Oil Refinery justified the increase in fuel prices with the hike in world market prices, cocoa farmers should be treated in Farmers are now poor because programmes aimed at improving their standard of living like the Kilo Kilo deduction and the Scholarship scheme have been defeated in one way or the other.
Mr Mahama Adam, NDC Damongo/Daboya, said the ministry of Agrticulture should redirect some of its efforts in the cocoa sector into other crops like cashew which are less capital intensive and h He said all farmers need support and appealed to the ministry to take immediate steps to dispatch inputs to farmers in his constituency and other areas.
Dr Richard Anane, NPP-Bantama, said increasing productivity in the cocoa sector does not necessarily mean increasing the acreage of farms. There is the need for a policy to replace old farms since most of the farms and the farmers are aged adding ''if we want to revamp the agricultural sector, then subsidy must be reintroduced. Mr Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, NPP-Asante Akim North, called for the streamlining of the distribution channel of insecticides to farmers which at present do not get to the farmers at the correct price He called on the Cocoa Board to find ways of marketing coffee which has been left to no regularised institution. The rehabilitation of cocoa roads which were included in the 1997 budget should be the responsibility of the COCBOD.
Mr Ibrahim Adam, NDC-Choggu/Tishigu, reacting to members' contribution on the re-introduction of subsidies, said an on-going study by the Ministry of Agriculture shows that subsidies per se do Rather, the study showed that wastage of inputs was high due to their low subsidized prices. The member, who was a former Minister of Agriculture, said Malaysia and other countries in the Far East are doing far better than Ghana in the production of Oil Palm because "our soil and climat He said a few years ago, some Malaysian companies that wanted to invest in that direction withdrew after soil test and other studies. Mr J. H. Mensah, Minority Leader, said it is unfortunate that Ghana could not rpt not meet a target of producing 300,000 tonnes of cocoa now when 30 years ago, the country produced about 500,000 tonnes a year. He enumerated a number of problems that impede progress in the cocoa industry including the non-availability of cutlasses, insecticides and seedlings when and where needed. Mr Adam, on a point of order, refuted the Minority Leader's statement, saying on the contrary, there is a vibrant private sector-led seed industry scattered throughout the country.
Mr Mensah further alleged that the producers of Anden 20, a chemical used on cocoa farms, have stockpiled their products and are refusing to distribute until September to prevent smuggling. He said despite the total blockade, smuggling is still going on and called for a new marketing system that will reflect a liberalized product. "Cote d'Ivoire does not produce Anden, however their markets are flooded with the product smuggled from Ghana in truckloads becasue of (Ghana's) poor marketing system", he said. He said farmers are uable to call at the regional offices of Addai Cutlass Factory to buy cutlass at 4,000 cedis because of the long distance. They prefer to buy them at 6,000 cedis.
"It is about time we make inputs available in shops instead of allowing the so-called chief farmers to form some 'huhudious' cooperatives for their distribution which never get to the farmers a Mr Sampson K. Boafo, Minority Chief Whip, said since the marketing of inputs is now handled by the private sector, the Association of Ghana Industries should be made aware of the loopholes in the system.
