Farmers in America are rich because their focus is on money,it is not on the dirty and tedious nature of the job. They use machinery wherever possible. The large number of immigrants who pick fruits do not want their children ... read full comment
Farmers in America are rich because their focus is on money,it is not on the dirty and tedious nature of the job. They use machinery wherever possible. The large number of immigrants who pick fruits do not want their children to do the same because they are often overworked and underpaid. We must take all of these factors into account when planning for future food supply.
Nkrumah adopted the US large-scale farming method. However the US used food as currency in foreign relations and policy negotiations. Ghanaians should feel patriotism and empathy so as to invest in farm machinery and storage facilities. Importing cheap labour should be avoided at all cost because of the ramifications.
Kwesi Atta Sakyi 9 years ago
Thank you for your insightful rejoinder.
Thank you for your insightful rejoinder.
Mahmoud 9 years ago
Being in power for six years with high commodity prices including the newly found oil, and after recklessly borrowing more than 60.8% of the GDP or $27bn in six years for dubious contracts and "oil curse" expenses, forcing th ... read full comment
Being in power for six years with high commodity prices including the newly found oil, and after recklessly borrowing more than 60.8% of the GDP or $27bn in six years for dubious contracts and "oil curse" expenses, forcing the Cedi to depreciate to about 40% of its value, and the administration rushing to the IMF for a bail out, the NDC government is now propagating deceitfully that it's seeking to reduce Ghana's import bill on rice, sugar, tomatoes, among other items, by encouraging the production of those commodities locally.
The question discerning Ghanaians are asking is whether the NDC government thinks that people believe they are serious and realistic about food production, when they have already squandered six years and have only two years to leave office. Agriculture, and food production in particular, is a priority that should have been in full swing since 2009. But unfortunately, they said they were still looking for ways to start it next year or so. Yet, SADA as a policy initiative is no more on government's agenda for 2015. We know they're capable of cooking figures to deceive Ghanaians; but they cannot cook figures to deceive the IMF. Can they?
NANA ARABA 9 years ago
YOU ARE RIGHT BUT PLEASR CONTACT PRESIDENT MAHAMA AND MINISTER OF FINANCE TO DISCUSS YOUR SUGGESTIONS AND GIVE US FEEDBACK OF HOW YOUR COMMUNICATION WITH THEM WENT. THANKS
YOU ARE RIGHT BUT PLEASR CONTACT PRESIDENT MAHAMA AND MINISTER OF FINANCE TO DISCUSS YOUR SUGGESTIONS AND GIVE US FEEDBACK OF HOW YOUR COMMUNICATION WITH THEM WENT. THANKS
ghanaman 9 years ago
Bro Kwesi, yours is no doubt a great piece. The ideas are worthy of implementation since the examples you draw and the vision you outline are convincing. May I call on you to respond when you receive Linkedin requests from so ... read full comment
Bro Kwesi, yours is no doubt a great piece. The ideas are worthy of implementation since the examples you draw and the vision you outline are convincing. May I call on you to respond when you receive Linkedin requests from some of us who really enjoy your articles here. Without your readers, who are you ;-)
Kwesi Atta Sakyi 9 years ago
Thank you brother ghanaman. I did not know that people cherish what I share on ghanaweb as Ghanaians have grown the tendency of attacking everyone who has something to share, whether they have expertise or not about the subje ... read full comment
Thank you brother ghanaman. I did not know that people cherish what I share on ghanaweb as Ghanaians have grown the tendency of attacking everyone who has something to share, whether they have expertise or not about the subject matter. I forget to include the intractable land tenure system in Ghana which is a huge obstacle to potential farmers. About a month ago, I critiqued a Phd thesis in Law which was on the Land Tenure system in Zambia. That was the second Phd thesis in Law I have so far reviewed and critiqued. The first one was for a Supreme Court Judge on Constitutionalism. I shall confirm you if I receive a Linkedin request. But how will I know it is you since you use a pseudonym or sobriquet here?
ghanaman 9 years ago
Thanks, Bro Kwesi. As you said, several people use ghanaweb.com to rant and attack others, etc. I use ghanaman (lower-case letters; note there is someone who has adopted "Ghanaman" who barely writes sense) here but my bona-fi ... read full comment
Thanks, Bro Kwesi. As you said, several people use ghanaweb.com to rant and attack others, etc. I use ghanaman (lower-case letters; note there is someone who has adopted "Ghanaman" who barely writes sense) here but my bona-fide initials are obk. I'm into ICT4D or information and communications technologies (especially free/open-source software) for development, Will send you another request today. Have a great day, Kwesi!
Kwesi Atta Sakyi 9 years ago
Thanks ghanaman for telling me a bit about yourself. I am happy you observe netiquette which others do not. Keep coming up with the rejoinders. I enjoy feedback.
Thanks ghanaman for telling me a bit about yourself. I am happy you observe netiquette which others do not. Keep coming up with the rejoinders. I enjoy feedback.
KKO 9 years ago
Very good piece, Kwesi,
Although I disagree with your last two paragraphs. You see, as late as 1978, the State Farms Corporation had a shop near Ghana House, across the road from the new multi-storey car park. There were s ... read full comment
Very good piece, Kwesi,
Although I disagree with your last two paragraphs. You see, as late as 1978, the State Farms Corporation had a shop near Ghana House, across the road from the new multi-storey car park. There were similar shops in other regional capitals and in the districts as well. By 1978, they mostly sold garri, beans and cassava, some yams in the districts. And the reason is that the few remaining farms at the time could not even produce enough food to feed the people who famed them.
Yes, the concept of guaranteed prices at the farm gate, as practiced in Kenya, for instance, is very good for sustainable farming, but even the Russians have moved away from state co-operatives simply because they are very inefficient. Party chiefs use them as avenues of employment for never do well party foot soldiers. That is what the CPP did, and so were the WDCs, and later the NPP, and now NDC - NADMO, National Service, NYEP, GYEEDA, SUBAH and all those agencies are just avenues for stealing. Ask yourself why the government has not prosecuted those who stole the GYEEDA and SUBAH monies and produced absolute damn all? The government knows them all and the only reason they have not been prosecuted is the fact that those monies were stolen for use to buy Election 2012!
Do you remember Col Bernasko's "Operation Feed Yourself?" It was very successful because there was no direct state involvement, just encouragement. Workers were allowed to go home early so they could transplant their seedlings. At harvest time, they were allowed to go home early to harvest.
I have relations who harvested several bags of corn, large quantities of tomatoes, okro, garden egss, beans, etc, on small strips of land, some in peoples’ uncompleted buildings in Accra. Many people gave away some of their produce because they had no means of preserving them. That year, there was so much corn that Ghana bartered with Zimbabwe, for cattle. It was the private sector that did it.
No, the state can only facilitate, not to be directly involved. It will never succeed. I have flown between the Ivory Coast and Ghana several times. There is a very interesting phenomenon. As you cross the border from the air, the land is greener and the farms are bigger - cocoa, cassava, plantain, yams, you name it, it is the same, on the Ivorian side. So the last two times that I went there, I decided to go by road. The difference is even more stark on the ground, private plantations!
For Ghana's agriculture to be ever sustainable, we will need to reform our anachronistic land tenure system. It is simply not good enough for sustainable agriculture. In most of Central, Western, Eastern and Ashanti Regions, and the Volta Region too, any half square mile of land that you can find for any commercial kind of farming most likely belongs to at least five families. In 2002, I and a friend did a survey for a Spanish company that was in the process of undertaking commercial rice farming in the Akuse area of the Volta Region. The company had to abandon their plans because the 10 sq km land they had earmarked turned out to be owned by 32 families in the area! Those families could not agree on anything!
The reason why most young people have fled the rural areas in Ghana is because the farmlands have been so badly decimated that an average young farmer cannot acquire enough ‘trouble-free land’ to even feed himself and family, let alone having some surplus to sell. That is why they have moved to Accra to sell dog chains. Then there are the bad environmental practices that have left our farmlands so barren.
Yes, we need to go into large scale agriculture, but certainly not with the state pumping money down the drain for a few greedy individuals to enrich themselves at the expense of the many!
ghanaman 9 years ago
KKO, you have said it all. Too much state involvement in large-scale farming will not help. The private sector has to be lured with incentives to invest in the agric sector. The land tenure system clearly needs revision. Neve ... read full comment
KKO, you have said it all. Too much state involvement in large-scale farming will not help. The private sector has to be lured with incentives to invest in the agric sector. The land tenure system clearly needs revision. Nevertheless, the role of small private farmers cannot be downplayed. Not everyone wants to buy agric produce from plantations with heavy use of fertilizers, pesticides, etc. If the large plantations, or at least some of them, will also engage in organic farming, then yes. Seriously, government has to acknowledge the inception of the "Dutch disease", with oil revenues providing unforeseen wealth for the ruling class and very few people engaging in productive, non-rent-holding economic activity. Else, the risk of total collapse of sectors other than oil, financial and real estate will be real.
KKO 9 years ago
Thanks, ghanaman,
The small scale farmer will always be critical. A land tenure reform will benefit that sector as much as it will the commercial farmer. But even more importantly, a guaranteed price will actually serve him ... read full comment
Thanks, ghanaman,
The small scale farmer will always be critical. A land tenure reform will benefit that sector as much as it will the commercial farmer. But even more importantly, a guaranteed price will actually serve him better.
But for the fact that the Ghanaian cocoa farmer has a guaranteed market/price, that industry would have collapsed a long time ago.
If you travel by road between Lagos and Benin City in Nigeria, you see acres and acres of oil palm plantations that have been abandoned by their owners. Most of them are chasing illusive oil riches in Lagos and Abuja!
If we do not make subsistent farming attractive in Ghana, that is what is going to happen to us.
Kwasi Kyei 9 years ago
Great article and many good points.
I am a Ghanaian born citizen who was fortunate enough to be educated in Uk. Having returned several years ago and gone into farming I have to say that dvelopment of the agricultural sect ... read full comment
Great article and many good points.
I am a Ghanaian born citizen who was fortunate enough to be educated in Uk. Having returned several years ago and gone into farming I have to say that dvelopment of the agricultural sector led by Ghanaians looks bleak in the short and medium term. The only hope is for large, foreign producers to set up in Ghana. These operations are few and far between, and As mentioned the availability of large parcels of land is the main cause of their absence and lack of growth.
I am now in my fourth year of farming and after plundering over 120,000 $ into my business, I have made consecutive losses year on year.
Kwasi Kyei 9 years ago
Just to finish my point. In this game you need big land, big capital, big machinery and lots of technical competence. Now look around...do you know any Ghanaians with all of these? Me neither.
However, in the long term we ... read full comment
Just to finish my point. In this game you need big land, big capital, big machinery and lots of technical competence. Now look around...do you know any Ghanaians with all of these? Me neither.
However, in the long term we can get this. The answer is in cocoa. Cocoa is a cashcow. Cocoa will give you leverage for a large loan. Cocoa will give you competence. Cocoa will give you a platform to build on and take risks into other non traditional crops.
This year i have left two crops on my farm to rot which would have otherwise made me over 60,000 GHC. let me give you some advise, don't worry about sustainability when you are in a gutter. Profitablilty comes before sustainability, this is the real issue.
MARCUS AMPADU 9 years ago
It depends on how you define sustainability Mr. Kwasi Kyei.
It depends on how you define sustainability Mr. Kwasi Kyei.
francis kwarteng 9 years ago
Dear Prof. Sakyi,
A good one there. Keep them coming!
Thanks.
Dear Prof. Sakyi,
A good one there. Keep them coming!
Thanks.
MARCUS AMPADU 9 years ago
Your geographic knowledge is reflected in your piece. To the extent that you chose to forgo what I thought was going to be a discussion of the impact of climate change mitigation and adaptability on our food security.
We c ... read full comment
Your geographic knowledge is reflected in your piece. To the extent that you chose to forgo what I thought was going to be a discussion of the impact of climate change mitigation and adaptability on our food security.
We cannot, as a tropical country escape climate change and variability, and the earlier we come up with policies that would ensure our food security the better; needless to say that our current agricultural policy is unsustainable.
As long as we don't do anything to end urban bias against the rural folks, who produce most of our agricultural products, and yet are largely voiceless.
Farmers in America are rich because their focus is on money,it is not on the dirty and tedious nature of the job. They use machinery wherever possible. The large number of immigrants who pick fruits do not want their children ...
read full comment
Thank you for your insightful rejoinder.
Being in power for six years with high commodity prices including the newly found oil, and after recklessly borrowing more than 60.8% of the GDP or $27bn in six years for dubious contracts and "oil curse" expenses, forcing th ...
read full comment
YOU ARE RIGHT BUT PLEASR CONTACT PRESIDENT MAHAMA AND MINISTER OF FINANCE TO DISCUSS YOUR SUGGESTIONS AND GIVE US FEEDBACK OF HOW YOUR COMMUNICATION WITH THEM WENT. THANKS
Bro Kwesi, yours is no doubt a great piece. The ideas are worthy of implementation since the examples you draw and the vision you outline are convincing. May I call on you to respond when you receive Linkedin requests from so ...
read full comment
Thank you brother ghanaman. I did not know that people cherish what I share on ghanaweb as Ghanaians have grown the tendency of attacking everyone who has something to share, whether they have expertise or not about the subje ...
read full comment
Thanks, Bro Kwesi. As you said, several people use ghanaweb.com to rant and attack others, etc. I use ghanaman (lower-case letters; note there is someone who has adopted "Ghanaman" who barely writes sense) here but my bona-fi ...
read full comment
Thanks ghanaman for telling me a bit about yourself. I am happy you observe netiquette which others do not. Keep coming up with the rejoinders. I enjoy feedback.
Very good piece, Kwesi,
Although I disagree with your last two paragraphs. You see, as late as 1978, the State Farms Corporation had a shop near Ghana House, across the road from the new multi-storey car park. There were s ...
read full comment
KKO, you have said it all. Too much state involvement in large-scale farming will not help. The private sector has to be lured with incentives to invest in the agric sector. The land tenure system clearly needs revision. Neve ...
read full comment
Thanks, ghanaman,
The small scale farmer will always be critical. A land tenure reform will benefit that sector as much as it will the commercial farmer. But even more importantly, a guaranteed price will actually serve him ...
read full comment
Great article and many good points.
I am a Ghanaian born citizen who was fortunate enough to be educated in Uk. Having returned several years ago and gone into farming I have to say that dvelopment of the agricultural sect ...
read full comment
Just to finish my point. In this game you need big land, big capital, big machinery and lots of technical competence. Now look around...do you know any Ghanaians with all of these? Me neither.
However, in the long term we ...
read full comment
It depends on how you define sustainability Mr. Kwasi Kyei.
Dear Prof. Sakyi,
A good one there. Keep them coming!
Thanks.
Your geographic knowledge is reflected in your piece. To the extent that you chose to forgo what I thought was going to be a discussion of the impact of climate change mitigation and adaptability on our food security.
We c ...
read full comment