After 39 years of Farmers’ Day

Some 39 years ago the government of Ghana instituted the Ghana Nation­al Farmers’ Day to whip up interest and enthusiasm among the population in agriculture. Above all, it was to honour hardworking farmers in the country by way of appreciation.

The National Farmers’ Day was also instituted by the government in 1985 in recognition of the vital role farmers and fishermen play in the Ghanaian economy. This was to empha­size the highly commendable output of farmers and fisher­men in 1984 which was about 30 percent after the bad agricultural years of 1982 and 1983.

The day has been set aside as a national holiday in the country for the celebration of farmers and fishermen every first Friday of December. It appears that this is one of the very few areas the government is promoting this way, especially granting the day as a national public holiday

Apart from the huge aware­ness that has been created in the field of agriculture in the coun­try hundreds of farmers have been honoured from the district to the national level. Areas like the Overall National Best Fisher, the National Best Marine Fisher, National Best Inland Fisher, National Best Fisher Farmer and the National Best Fish Proces­sor, the National Best Cocoa Farmer, National Best Most Promising Young Cocoa Farmer, National Best Most Enterprising Cocoa Female Farmer, National Best Coffee Farmer, and Nation­al Best Shea nut Picker among many others to cover the entire agriculture sector.

These individuals have received various items ranging from houses, agricultural inputs, and home appliances among others.

This year the awards ceremony took an opposite turn where awardees were hosted at a dinner awards night. Fifty-sev­en-year-old Charity Akortia, a mixed farmer from the Agona West District of the Central Region was adjudged the best farmer. She took home one million Ghana Cedis along with other prizes.

By and large, the nation has worked hard to promote agriculture, but our efforts have been woefully inadequate to put us on an appreciable pedestal.

Currently, it is estimated that about 1.2 million people, representing about five per cent of Ghana’s population, are food insecure.

Although self-sufficient in the production of tubers, roots, and maize, Ghana is highly dependent on imports of rice, poultry meat, and soybeans (soybean meal), a major component in an­imal feed that could also be used for vegetable oil production and other nutritious products.

Last year, for instance, Ghana imported 2.6 billion dollars in agricultural and related products. Imports from the United States which was $125.4 million consti­tuted about five per cent of the total import value.

Sadly, some of the imports are simply avoidable because of the weather conditions and our environment which are agricul­turally favourable. For instance, why should Ghana import a commodity such as onions from her neighbour, Niger to the tune of about five million dollars annually?

In 2021, Ghana imported 207 thousand Cassava, becoming the 94th largest importer of Cassava in the world.

Ghana is a food deficit country, families are also vulnerable to global price spikes for im­ported foods such as rice, yams, grains, cocoa, oil palms, kola nuts, and timber other cereals and tubers which form the base of agriculture.

These severe food deficits in Ghana warranting huge food imports against all the efforts we have made as a nation have emanated chiefly from the fact that our approach has been the same all over the years. The old saying that one cannot achieve a different result by doing the same thing, rings a bell here.

Against this backdrop, the theme for the year’s celebration, ‘Delivering Smart Solutions for Sustainable Food Security and Resilience’ resonates very well with the farmers and indeed the good people of Ghana.

Today it is estimated that over 80 percent of Ghanaian farm­ers still use the hoe and cutlass method of farming. Smart farming is the order of the day around the globe. Smart farming is a management concept focused on providing the agricultural industry with the infra­structure to leverage advanced technology – including big data, the cloud and the Internet of Things (IoT) for tracking, moni­toring, automating and analysing operations.

In the next few decades, the agricultural industry is set to become more important than ever before as it will need to meet the demands of a growing population. That’s why farmers and agribusinesses are turning to the Internet of Things (IoT) and smart farming technologies for improved analytics and greater production capabilities.

Ghana needs urgently to work on Agricultural technology which has been evolving over the last years. Simple hand tools gradually evolved into the mechanical equipment that now runs almost every aspect of commercial farming. This kind of technology is generally based on mechanical engineering solutions, without much in the way of ‘intelligence’. But now, things are beginning to change.

In certain parts of the world today, the phenomenon of smart farming is being propelled by rapid developments in the IoT and cloud computing.

Ghana’s agriculture is facing myriad challenges that could undermine future food security, ranging from climate change, poor infrastructure, and low levels of investment to lack of access to finance, post-harvest losses, and unsustainable farm­ing systems.

Farmers face challenges from climate change, low prices, poor road infrastructure, lack of access to finance, inadequate markets, post-harvest losses, insufficient education and knowledge, unsustainable farming systems, rural-to-urban migra­tion, inappropriate policies and lack of technological change.

The agricultural sector ac­counts for one-fifth of Gha­na’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), employs nearly half of the workforce and is the main source of livelihood for the majority of the country’s poorest households. Ghana’s agricultural sector is characterised by low yields for both staple and cash crops.

About 52 percent of the la­bour force is engaged in agricul­ture, 29 per cent in services and 19 percent in industry. Approx­imately, 39 percent of the farm labour force is women. Agricul­ture contributes to 54 percent of Ghana’s GDP, and accounts for over 40 per cent of export earnings, while at the same time providing over 90 per cent of the food needs of the country.

Can we pause as a country to evaluate our nation’s agricultural policies to possibly redefine, restructure and strategise to leap out of where we are? Food security in this country is key and we must diligently and consciously work for it.

Agriculture is the backbone of the Ghanaian economy. It is Ghana’s most important economic sector, employing more than half of the population on a formal and informal basis but we have woefully failed as a country to take the due advantage to leverage it for national prosperity.

From now technology in farm­ing has been the way to food sufficiency and for prosperity. According to the Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, the Agriculture front in the past six years demonstrates the government’s unwavering commitment to transform the sector and place it on a sound footing for accelerated development, with demonstrable results.

For him, “These efforts have yielded notable success through the flagship programme, Plant­ing for Food and Jobs (PFJ), initiated in 2017. For example, from a baseline growth of 2.9 per cent in 2016, the agricultural sector recorded an average growth rate of six per cent from 2017 to 2022. This significant increase in growth rate enhanced food security, increased job opportunities across the agricultural value chain and supported emerging industries with raw materials among others.