68 years, still more to do: A piece to the Minister of Agriculture

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• ST Ghfuo: KWAME NKRUMAH INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT 10 months ago

  i think each region of gh must have an agricultural specialty. the soil n weather in each respective region may be conducive for a type of vegetation ot animal rearing. so why not look into this and make each region a leader ...
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  i think each region of gh must have an agricultural specialty. the soil n weather in each respective region may be conducive for a type of vegetation ot animal rearing. so why not look into this and make each region a leader in this area?

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• Pelicles. 10 months ago

  What was Eric Opoku's record as Agric Minister under Mahama's government from 2012-2016, good, better or bad so, why giving him the same portfolio, just to try something or what?
  
  As a nation, we have to be serious and stop ...
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  What was Eric Opoku's record as Agric Minister under Mahama's government from 2012-2016, good, better or bad so, why giving him the same portfolio, just to try something or what?
  
  As a nation, we have to be serious and stop the "Child's play".

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• David Opeku 9 months ago

  This article is most welcome at this crucial stage of our economic transformation. The ideas articulated by the author include nuggets of wisdom that the honorable minister of agriculture must take note of.
  1. We cannot aff ...
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  This article is most welcome at this crucial stage of our economic transformation. The ideas articulated by the author include nuggets of wisdom that the honorable minister of agriculture must take note of.
  1. We cannot afford to do business as usual. The structure of the ministry of agriculture is not suited for the agricultural transformation we seek to achieve.
  2. No matter how well intentioned, we cannot solve our food security challenges by investing in peasant agriculture. This approach is inefficient, expensive, difficult to monitor, never recoups costs, riddled with corruption and impossible to evaluate its success or failure.
  I however disagree with the author on his suggestion of using corporate entities like GNPC to go into farming. This approach has already been tested and failed.
  I have a simpler solution. Every year we churn out skilled agricultural scientists from our universities. No one asks what they pursue after graduation. The truth is 90% of them go into the non-agric sector. Banking, education, medicine, law and even piloting. There is no space for them in the current agricultural economy. I know for certain, that we can easily lure most of them back into agriculture if the necessary finance is made available. Recruit 400 of these scientists in 100 groups of 4. Each with his own area of expertise in animals, crops, soil, postharvest, engineering and processing. Make available $100million of soft loans to these scientists and task them to set up farms to produce, process and store maize, rice, fish, soybean, poultry, piggery, goats and dairy cattle. in 5 years, each of these farmers will be millionaires and they will have paid back all loans. They wont need the MoFAs control, no centralized bureaucracy. They will research and adopt the best practices that will maximize yield and minimize losses. They will develop effective storage processing and marketing systems. They will serve as training centers for other small holder farmers. Problem solved. I challenge the minister to consider this radical approach. I assure him of resounding success that will make Ghana food secure in 5 years.

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