Parliament commends farmers, fishermen

Page 14, Dec 4, 2009
Story: Emmanuel Adu-Gyamerah
AS the country prepares to celebrate the 25th Farmers Day on Friday, Members of Parliament (MPs) have commended farmers and fishermen for their hard work and commitment to addressing the food security, raw material needs and export earning of the country.
The MPs made the commendation when they contributed to a statement made on the floor of the House by the Chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and Cocoa Affairs, Dr Alhassan Yakubu, in commemoration of the day.
In his statement, Dr Alhassan, who is also the MP for Mion noted that the Farmers Day was a very important event for the reason that the country had come to the realization that “our development must be agriculture led since this is a sector that stands as the largest employment sector, foreign exchange earner and the highest contributor the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GD)”.
He stated that 25 years after the inception of the day, the time had come for the review of the award scheme to include permanent training schemes for all award winners in agricultural training institutions.
Dr Alhassan noted that knowledge acquired in practical agricultural technology skills would equip the award winners to enable them train other farmers in their communities.
He suggested the establishment of a multi-purpose agricultural technology village to serve as a centre of excellence where farmers and the people in the agriculture sector could acquire practical knowledge and skills in modern and improved methods in the industry for enhanced growth and productivity.
Dr Alhassan also commended past and present governments for making various interventions available to farmers adding that farmers still needed easy access to long-term favourable credit facilities, ready markets, easy access to agricultural machinery, across board subsidization of farming inputs and access to extension services.
“These challenges could only be overcome by more investment in the sector”, he said and called for the passage of the Agricultural Development Bill to guarantee a permanent solution to the problem of credit availability and access to farmers and agri-business in general.
Contributing to the statement, the MP for Juaboso, Mr Sampson Ahi said that sinceagriculture was the blood of the economy; efforts should be made the sector attractive to the youth to solve the employment problem in the country.
He expressed worry about the deplorable nature of roads in cocoa growing areas in the country and commended the COCOBOD for its efforts to remedy the situation.
Mr Ahi also called for measures to reduce the country’s rice import and explained that last year alone, a total of $600 million was spent to import the commodity into the country.
He noted, however that the re-introduction of the tariff on imported rice was one welcomed since it would encourage Ghanaians to patronize locally produced rice and boost its production.
For his part, the MP for Tano North, Mr Enerst Akubuor Debrah said it was commendable that prices awarded to award winners had appreciated over the years from pre-set radios to fully furnished houses for National Best farmers.
He stated, however that in spite of the contribution of farmers to the economy, they did not benefit enough from the sweat of their toil.
On the producer price of cocoa, Mr Debrah called for an addition to the current price to dissuade farmers living along the borders of the country from smuggling their produce to the neighbouring countries who pay higher prices.
The MP forEffutu, Mr Mike Allen Hammah called for measures to deal with post harvest losses to enable farmers to store their produce and get good prices from them.
The MP for Ofoase-Ayirebi, Mr David Opong-Kusi suggested the establishment of farming institutes in all the districts to formally train farmers to adopt modern method of farming to improve on their yields.
“We need to go beyond the celebration of the farmers’ day and make it more meaningful to the lives of the people”, he said.
The MP for Asawase, Alhaji Muntaka Mohammed Mubarak called for guaranteed prices for other commodities apart from cocoa to encourage farmers to increase their yields.