Wa, Dec. 10, GNA - The Ghana Trade & Livelihood Coalition (GTLC) has called for a review the Planting for Food and jobs (PFJ) programme to make it more responsive to the needs of farmers.
A press statement signed by its Upper West Policy Officer, Emmanuel Wullingdool said the “PFJ in its current form is a top down policy, and deviates from the real needs and challenges confronting farmers”.
It saluted Ghanaian farmers for their significant contribution to the growth of the economy.
The Coalition also applauded the government and its partners for recognising the work of local farmers.
Over the years, agriculture has been the backbone of the economy, contributing over 20 per cent to nation’s GDP and employing over 40 per cent of the labour force.
The sector also supports other parts of the national economy including the industry and services sector and contributes greatly to the foreign exchange earnings of Ghana.
The statement lauded the renewed interest in agriculture shown in the Planting for food and Jobs, One Village One Dam, One District One Warehouse, One District One Factory and provision of mechanised centres among other policy initiatives.
It, however, said “commendable as these programmes and policies are to the Ghanaian farmers there are still substantial challenges facing farmers”.
The statement cited access to water for irrigation purposes as one of the leading challenges confronting smallholder farmers.
It added that the percentage of irrigable land in Ghana was low compared to other parts of the world.
“The issue is very critical to farmers and most of the success chalked in agriculture, have been attributed to good rainfall.”
GTLC also mentioned access to credit as another major hurdle and said “in instances where they got the credit, the interest rates on it is so high”.
Due to inadequate access to credit farmers were unable to acquire the necessary inputs for their farm work.
It also touched on the lack of machinery and equipment for land preparation - tractors, power tillers, cultivators, and harrowing machines and asked that these were tackled.
The Coalition raised concern about the supply of inputs, issues of post-harvest losses and inability of farmers to market their produce, due largely to poor road infrastructure to farm gates.
It highlighted the need to make credit facilities available to farmers at reasonable interest rates.
The government should also give consideration to gender in all its policy interventions in the agriculture sector, particularly support to women.
“Women are noted to be very efficient at turning around inputs into high outputs and therefore if given the needed support, they could double their contribution to farming”.
GNA
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