Farmers Day: The Moment to reflect on Extreme Poverty and Hunger

As it’s always expected to be, the economy of Ghana has experienced little or no structural change over the past decades. Agriculture remains the dominant sector in terms of contribution to the Gross Domestic Product, income, employment generation and economic output, yet most of the bottlenecks that inhibit productivity also persist.

Indeed, it is an incontrovertible fact that the day for our industrious farmers has not been widely used for the realization of real achievements in the agriculture sector. This year's celebration, which falls on December 4, is with the theme "Accelerated agricultural modernization for food security and economic transformation". Would the occasion again become nothing more than a flamboyant style of appreciating and encouraging the role of farmers in the country where real poverty and hunger still abound? And as such, do farmers and the nation at large have much to celebrate? It is interesting know that the twenty-fifth celebration of the National Farmers Day has nothing special to show off. In the 21st century in an agrarian economy, real poverty and hunger have well ravaged the livelihoods of majority of the people though we produce enough for export.

Historically, apparently all National Farmers Days witnessed have been the political event where politicians jostle for media attention instead of using the day for the pronouncement of strategic policy implementation to boost the confidence of the ordinary peasant farmer and resuscitate the lost hope of those in solid grips of extreme poverty and hunger. For how long would the day be a mere celebration?

It is the fervent hope of every Ghanaian that year’s celebration considering the ‘theme’ would be the moment to reflect and strategically deal with real poverty and hunger that is even predominant among farmers in the rural areas. The Underlying Issues It is very difficult to fathom how an economy that is sustained by agriculture presents a grim package of real poverty and hunger. The presence of poverty is even relatively defensible considering the unstable prices for agriculture products on the international market but the case of hunger would continue to be a mystery. It is worth noting that agriculture despite the major budgetary supports it has received from various governments before and after independence, and multilateral donors, the sector has failed to ensure food security and sustain the income to the majority of the people. In a simple consideration of the operations of International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) in collaboration with other donor agencies in Ghana, there have been as many as ten (10) completed projects and programmes and five (5) ongoing all geared towards ensuring agriculture modernization and poverty reduction, yet the ordinary Ghanaian is reeling under harsh conditions posed by extreme poverty and hunger. Some of the completed projects and programmes include Root and Tuber Improvement Programme (2002-2008), Rural Enterprises Project (1995-2002), Rural Financial Services Project (2002-2008), to mention but a few. For the ongoing projects and programmes, one can count Rural Enterprises Project- Phase II (2003-2011), Rural and Agriculture Finance Programme which spans for six years, Northern Rural Growth Programme (2008-2016), Root and Tuber Improvement and Marketing Programme (2006-2014) and Northern Region Poverty Reduction Programme (2006-2014). Other projects and programmes from bilateral donors and non-governmental organisations on poverty alleviation and hunger are countless. The question as to whether there been any significant improvement in the livelihoods of the people and the economy at large or not would be left to individual judgments. Or should the country hope for any significant improvement in the future? In reality, real poverty and hunger has assumed unacceptable scale even with the increase in projects and programmes in the agriculture sector. The burning question that would linger in the minds of the majority people is ‘what is actually the problem in Ghana?’ Farm mechanization and irrigation techniques, though have found expression in well prepared budgets for the past twenty years, have been a mocking mirage. The peasant farmer in the 21st century still patronizes cutlass and hoe in producing food to feed Ghanaians. Majority of our farmers still depend on the vagaries of the weather to grow their crops. Also, cocoa which is the major backbone of the economy has not received the adequate attention and seriousness it deserves. What now exists is that cocoa growing areas continue to be struck by inadequate and poor infrastructure. Though politicians feel the pinch of damaged and poor roads during their electioneering campaigns, they leave the condition unattended to when voted into power. These problems applies to major communities in the country especially in the Western and Brong Ahafo Region that produce vital food crops to feed the growing population. There are a lot of problems that has been neglected for long including the cheap and easy importation of agriculture and food products into the already limited market. This has left the farmers to battle with the difficulties of offloading their agriculture produce to the market just to make ends meet. It is about time Ghana got committed to the challenges in the agriculture sector to create enabling environment for the poor farmer to make a sustainable living. It is simply unacceptable for a potential agrarian economy to drive the majority of its people into destitution. A look at Poverty and Hunger in Ghana The global battle to combat poverty was much realized when on September, 2000, United Nations Millennium Summit, 189 Heads of State and Government unanimously adopted the Millennium Declaration of which Ghana was involved. The 8 Millennium Development Goals, its 18 targets and 48 indicators to be achieved by 2015 are unique, clear and precise step to eradicating poverty in, especially, developing countries. So, have the MDGs serve any useful lesson for Ghana in her approach to ensure growth and stability? It is not an exaggeration to say that the country is about losing the battle to achieve the global society’s stated objectives on hunger and poverty. This is because one does not need to be told that Ghana is not ready to achieve MDG 1- Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger- which is barely five years from its implementation deadline, when five per cent (5%) of the population of the country reportedly go to bed hungry. There is therefore the urgent need for the country to work out prudent and realistic structural strategies to end the extended reign of extreme poverty and hunger especially with the government, corporate institutions and individuals using this twenty-fifth celebration of the National Farmers Day as a platform to declare their relentless commitment to increase agriculture production. It is worthy of note that meaningful long-term alleviation to hunger is rooted in the alleviation of poverty, as poverty leads to hunger. Hunger as perceived in the local and international context is a terrible symptom of poverty. However, if efforts are only directed at providing food, or improving food production or distribution, then the structural root causes that create hunger, poverty and dependency would still remain. The obvious issue is for the government to boldly control the excessive influx of imported agriculture and food products into the country that render the local farmer uncompetitive and vulnerable. This protection is bound to expand the market size for the consumption of their produce. We hope that the significance of the Millennium Challenge Account that creates enabling environment for the development of infrastructural facilities to boost agriculture production would be manifested and that the government formulates policies toward infrastructure development, improved irrigation methods and farm mechanization. The provision of infrastructure reduces cost of production and hence the ordinary farmer is better positioned to produce more on large scale, not neglecting the easy access of credit to farmers. The provision of highly subsidised improved agriculture inputs to increase production for home consumption and export should also remain a high priority. Conclusion The celebration of this year’s farmers day should go beyond the ordinary and serve as a clarion call for the country to focus extensively on eradicating extreme poverty and hunger. It is enough for an agrarian economy with vast fertile agriculture lands to be a net importer of food items. The bold decision by the government to re-impose import duties on certain food items, especially rice and poultry products is a step in the right direction which would assure the ordinary farmer of large market for their produce. These are the decisions that should commemorate the farmers day celebrations for Ghana to make headway in achieving a middle income status.

Let us make the economy liveable for Ghanaian farmers. The colourful ceremony for farmers that still brings real poverty and hunger into memory should end now.

Nonetheless, Ghanaians are very proud of our farmers for tirelessly producing enough to feed the increasing population even in difficult times experienced in this year. Akuafoo -Ye ma mo ayekooo!!!!

The author, Stephen Yeboah is at the Department of Planning, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi-Ghana. (Email: stephenyeboah110@yahoo.com)