Scrap taxes on agricultural machinery, equipment to make them affordable – Dr Kanton

The government should scrap taxes on agricultural machinery and equipment to make them afford­able for farmers to boost food production, a Chief Research Scientist, Dr Roger Kanton, has proposed.

Dr Kanton, formerly with the Savannah Agricultural Research Institute under the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, made the suggestion in Accra on Monday during a public lecture by the Swedru Senior High School (SWESCO).

He said the scrapping of taxes on agricultural machinery and equipment would enhance productivity and agricultural pro­duction in the country.

Dubbed ‘The Swedru con­versations,’ the annual thought leadership programme, organised by the Alumni of SWESCO, was on the theme ‘Feeding Ourselves as a Nation – Perspectives on Revolutionalising our Agricultural Fortunes.’

Dr Kanton, the main speaker who spoke on the theme of the programme, said farmers could not rely on cutlasses and hoes and needed modern farming equip­ment to boost production so they could compete with their counter­part in developed economies.

He said tractor services could help farmers to plough and culti­vate large tracts of land, explain­ing that research had shown that a delay by a week could result in significant yield reduction in the range of up to 25 per cent.

Dr Kanton said the govern­ment should collaborate with farmers and importers to decide on the farm machinery which farmers require and import same into the country.

The Chief Research Scientist mentioned the high cost of credit, poor road and farming infrastruc­

ture, post-harvest losses, and inad­equate extension officers as some of the challenges facing farmers in the country.

Dr Kanton stressed that there was the need for an immediate policy for the establishment of a fertiliser company in the country.

“Foreign seed companies should be made to set up farms in Ghana to help in monitoring and early seed delivery,” he suggested.

Professor Kwame Agyei Frim­pong, the Head of Soil Science Department of the University of Cape Coast, a panellists said agriculture needed to be branded to make it attractive to the youth, saying that agriculture was lucra­tive with a lot opportunities.

Former Head of the Department of Agricultural Economics and Extension, Prof. Festus An­nor-Frempong, advised Ghana­ians to venture into agriculture and utilise spaces in their houses for backyard gardens.

A lecturer at the Faculty of Agriculture, KNUST, Dr Enoch Tham-Agyekum, suggested agri­culture should be introduced as a core subject in basic schools and the school farm concept should be reintroduced to enable schools to produce food to complement what was supplied by the govern­ment.