Approach to agriculture must change – Abu Sakara

A former flagbearer of the Convention People’s Party and an agronomist, Dr. Abu Sakara has called on government to change the approach to agriculture in the country by prioritizing on small to large-scale farming.

Speaking at the Graphic Business/Stanbic Bank Business Breakfast Meeting at the Labadi Beach Hotel in Accra on October 31, themed: “Securing the economy with agriculture”, Dr. Sakara said the economy will only transform if the focus is not always centered on small-scale farmers but on medium and large-scale farmers as well.

“We cannot continue on the basis of having only small-scale farmers. There has to be evolution from small to medium and large-scale commercial farmers. If that evolution is not taking place, then the transformation is not taking place and that also determines how much we invest in each category of farmer. I think sometimes we focus only on the small-scale farmers to the exclusion of the medium to the large and commercial scale farmers,” he said.

The Graphic Business/Stanbic Bank Business Breakfast Meeting held today brought together stakeholders in the agriculture sector to focus on how agriculture can boost the country’s economy.



Background

Agriculture, until recently, was one of the biggest contributors to Ghana’s GDP, as a majority of the population of the country are into farming, fishing and other forms of agriculture.

Unfortunately, revenue the government generates from agriculture has seen a decline and this has slowed down economic growth.

A seven-year contribution of agriculture to GDP shows a steady decline. Agric’s performance dipped from 31.8 percent in 2009 to 29.8 percent in 2010, before easing further down to 25.3 percent in 2011, 22.7 percent in 2012, 22.4 percent in 2013, 21.5 percent in 2014, and 19 percent in 2015.

This has been largely blamed on several problems such as not too robust government policies, inadequate access to funding or aid by farmers and fishermen, the lack of machinery, technological expertise, training, storage facilities, transportation and ready market for agricultural produce.