Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia with their wives
For development to happen there must be a political commitment and a consensual support of the citizenry. In the absence of one of these variables any government will fail.
When Acheampong introduced the OPERATION FEED YOUR SELF (OFYS) policy, we saw a major policy shift from the Nkrumah industrialisation policy which emphasised industrialisation as the #driver of rural agriculture, the Acheampong regime viewed agriculture as a #precondition for industrial development.
In operationalising the OFYS, there was a major shift in financing rural agriculture with the creation of rural community banks with the core mandate of financing smallholder farmers. Commercial banks where required by law to lend 20% of their investment portfolio to the agriculture sector (Mann et al 2010) . The overall success of the policy saw agriculture grew by an impressive 4.1% . It suffices to ask our self what was the agriculture sector growth in 2015 and 2016.
The NPPs PLANTING FOR FOOD AND JOBS policy is striking and appealing. The political commitment is unshakable while the citizenry believe that is the way to go ( consensual support).
In less than 100 days in office the government has already launched the program in Ejura, a farming community. The government has committed to improving extension services. The government has slashed by 50% the price of fertilizer. How more committed can a government be?. With the consensual support of the citizenry as exhibited after the budget read by the finance minister, and the political commentary afterwards one can not but only trust in the competence of the NPP.
I further doubt it is for nothing the planting for food and jobs program is suppose to roll before the famous one district one factory policy. In effect the development of agriculture is a precondition for industrial growth.
