Stakeholders Discuss on agric at GB/SB Bank Breakfast meeting tomorrow
Stakeholders in the agriculture sector will converge on the Labadi Beach Hotel in Accra tomorrow for the third GRAPHIC BUSINESS/Stanbic Bank Breakfast meeting, which will focus on how agriculture can boost the country’s economy.
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The meeting will bring together major stakeholders in the sector that include officials from the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, sector associations such as the Ghana Agricultural Workers Union (GAWU), the Peasant Farmers Association, the Ghana Trade and Livelihoods Coalition, as well as some experts in the sector.
The theme: Securing the economy with agriculture, is to shape a broad discussion on how to revive the ailing sector, which was once one of the highest contributors to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
The meeting will feature speakers such as the Minister of Food and Agriculture, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto; a former flag bearer of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), Dr Abu Sakara; a former Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Dr Ahmed Alhassan Yakubu, and the General Secretary of the GAWU, Mr Edward Kareweh.
Background
Agriculture, until recently, was one of the highest contributors to Ghana’s GDP, as majority of the population of the country are into farming, fishing and other forms of agriculture.
Unfortunately, revenue the government generates from agriculture has seen a decline and this has slowed down
economic growth.
A seven-year contribution of agriculture to GDP shows a steady decline. Agric’s performance dipped from 31.8 per cent in 2009 to 29.8 per cent in 2010, before easing further down to 25.3 per cent in 2011, 22.7 per cent in 2012, 22.4 per cent in 2013, 21.5 per cent in 2014, and 19 per cent in 2015.
This has been largely blamed on several problems such as not too robust government policies, inadequate access to funding or aid by farmers and fishermen, the lack of machinery, technological expertise, training, storage facilities, transportation and ready market for agricultural produce.
Focal point
As the country works hard to return the economy onto the path of growth, agriculture has once again re-emerged as the focal point, as the current government has highlighted the sector as its priority area for the 2018 budget, which will be presented to Parliament in a few weeks.
The breakfast meeting will, therefore, provide the platform for the stakeholders in the sector to brainstorm critical areas of the sector that should be addressed in the budget.
Marshall Plan
The government has indicated that it will use the 2018 budget to introduce a Marshall Plan for the agricultural sector to build on the successes of the Planting for Food andJobs (PFAJ) programme.
This is expected to help the sector take off and also send signals to investors that the government is ready to prioritise the sector.
The Marshall Plan, according to government, would focus on ramping up investments under the PFAJ.
Another key feature of the plan will be the removal of duties on agro-processing and manufacturing equipment and machinery as well as the implementation of a grant funding facility for agribusiness start-ups.
The plan has also identified some key road projects to be executed in selected food growing areas across the country, and also create the conditions necessary for attracting private capital, local and international, into large scale commercial agriculture ventures and agribusinesses.
Land tenure
Some economists have, however, warned the government that the comprehensive plan could fail if the country’s challenging land tenure system is not swiftly addressed.
With access to large tracts of land being a challenge to farmers and investors, they warned that until the government addressed the challenges of the land ownership system in the country, it would not be able to attract the needed investments into the sector.
The breakfast meeting is, therefore, also expected to give policy makers and the experts in the industry the opportunity to find solutions to how to address some of these challenges.
