Farmers commit to President’s agric initiatives
The National Farmers and Fishers Award-Winners Association of Ghana (NFFAWAG) has pledged its support to the President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo administration to ensure that all his initiatives aimed at transforming the economy through agriculture succeed.
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That, it said, was to create employment for the unemployed youth of the country.
During a courtesy call by the members of the association on President Nana Akufo-Addo at the Flagstaff House in Accra, its chairman, Nene Davies Narh Korboe, stated that “in achieving this vision of a new Ghana, inspired by a vibrant agricultural and fishing industry, we can take some inspiration from the Asian Tigers. What we need and are hoping for in this country is an agricultural-led industrialisation”.
In pursuit of that vision, the association pleaded with the President to establish a Special Agriculture Fund to serve as start-up funds readily available to budding agribusiness entrepreneurs, especially young and unemployed graduates who were ready to take up agriculture and agribusiness as a profession.
Nene Korboe explained that such a fund would also facilitate “prompt and effective action on emergencies such as infestation by the fall army worms, floods, swine fever, bird flu, bush fires and drought which had devastating and long-term effects on the country as a whole”.
He enumerated a number of ways the association could support the President to make his initiative succeed, including its readiness to mentor young men and women who had the passion for farming across the entire value chain of soybean, maize, cassava, vegetables, among others.
Others were the establishment of mechanisation centres to provide the needed services for farmers, serve as off-takers for farmers’ produce by creating ready and secure markets for them, introduce them to agro-processing by equipping them with vital hands-on skills in the agricultural value chain, among other things.
The group, according to Nene Korboe, had also observed that the one district, one factory initiative was an ambitious and important initiative with the potential to create numerous jobs for the youth.
He also complained that the fishermen and women were experiencing challenges accessing pre-mix fuel and outboard motors and stated that the group was aware of the recent order banning the sale of premix fuel over weekends, and added that “ This should ameliorate the suffering of those engaged in the fishing industry. Most investors in the aquaculture industry complain about poor access to fingerlings and the high cost of fish feed. Artisanal fishers on the other hand require slipways for the repair of their boats and appropriate marine engines for effective fishing. We will be grateful if the Fisheries Ministry could address the challenges facing the sector,” he added.
President’s response
In response, President Akufo-Addo said if that interface between policy makers and those in the field continued to be fertile and there was cross-fertilisation between policy makers and the operators, “I think we are almost bound to succeed in whatever we have decided to undertake”.
He proposed that the two parties meet regularly, so that the government could be fully informed about the preoccupations of the association and what could be done for the members.
He said it was obvious that the objectives of the association were representative of the entire country and that they were cardinal and had everything to do with how agriculture, and for that matter the economy, could be transformed.
Other farmers associations present were SPEG, PAMPEG, VEPEG, GAVEX, Peasant farmers, Concerned Farmers, Yilo Krobo Mango Farmers among others.
