Agricultural Issues
Kufuor Tells His Story on Ghana's Agriculture Sector
Ghana Business News
Ghana’s former President, Mr. John Agyekum Kufuor has given his personal account on how he felt and what he did about the country’s agriculture sector when he was President.
President Kufuor writes in a book titled “Ghana’s Transformation” that about 60% of Ghana’s population directly depends on rural agriculture but yet those who work to provide food through farming are the most food-insecure people in the country.
The book was published by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) this May 2011.
Association Appeals to Government to Subsidize Seeds for Farmers
Ghana News Agency
The Seed Producers Association of Ghana has appealed to government to subsidise seeds for farmers as was been done on fertilizers to help increase food production.
The association says it has come to its notice that many farmers did not produce high yielding seeds and had to rely on uncertified seeds for cropping resulting in poor germination and yields.
Ghana: Ashma Farmers Refuse to Pay for Govt. Fertilizers
AllAfrica.com
Ashaiman — Mr. Numo Addinortey Addison, Ashaiman Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), has condemned the attitude of some crop farmers in the area, who have refused to pay for bags of fertilizer the Assembly sold to them on credit basis under the government's fertilizer subsidy programme.
Under the programme, five input dealers who were registered in the municipality to sell the subsidised fertilizer in 2010 were reported to have sold 3,114 bags of various types of fertilisers to the farmers.
Articles from the Daily Graphic
Shade Trees in the Cocoa Landscapes
Trees have long been useful on farms in that they are beneficial to the environment and farmers. Farmers maintain trees on their farms to provide shade and other purposes.
Cocoa farming practices that maintain different shade trees have been viewed as sustainable land use practice. Shaded cocoa trees have been noted to provide resources for plants and animals. However, because forestry policies do not favor cocoa farmers, the result has been the destruction of shaded trees on cocoa farms.
The Concession Act No. 124, 1962, section 16(4) in summary states that naturally occurring timber trees are owned by the stools. This means that farmers who have trees on their farmers can have timber concessionaires felling down timber trees on their farms and in the process destroying their cocoa farms without consulting the farmers.
As a result of this, farmers have resorted to farming practices that destroy these trees. This is done by making a deep ring around the tree, known as ring-barking, or setting fire at the base of the trees. The trees end up dying slowly without any destruction to the cocoa farms.
The reason why this is done is imply because the farmers feel there is no need to keep a tree on the farm when they’ve been told it does not legally belong to them.
This attitude has cost the nation though. In a publication by the Ministry of Environment and Science titled “National Biodiversity Strategy Action Plan (2002), it is estimated that the country loses 4% of it’s GDP through land degradation and deforestation. This then calls for favorable government policies that will empower farmers so that they are better able to assert their rights.
Source: Daily Graphic, Friday, May 27, 2011. Page 21 No.18544
MoFA, Private Sector to Address Agric. Challenges
The Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) and the private sector have made a resolution to address the challenges facing the agric sector. To formalize the resolution, MoFA and the private sector have signed a memorandum of understanding known as the Agricultural Public-Private Dialogue (PPD) Forum.
Twenty three organizations, including the Agric. Development Bank, the Framers Organization Networks in Ghana and the Federation of Associations of Ghanaian Farmers, among others.
The Agricultural PPD Forum, sponsored by the Centre for International Private Enterprise, Washington, DC will serve as a platform for regular dialogue public and private stakeholders in agricultural policy design, implementation and monitoring.
Source: Daily Graphic, Friday, May 27, 2011. Page 51 No.18544