By Samuel Boadi
BENJAMIN ADJEI Adjetey, the 2010 National Best Farmer, has called on Government to institute more research into how farmers could be assisted to manage their farms as businesses instead of a mere means of subsistence.
Speaking at the launch of a maiden report by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), the UK’s leading independent think-tank, on Ghana, titled: “Ghana’s Story – Ghana’s sustained agricultural growth,” in Accra, Mr Adjetey said despite the pronounced progress purported to have been registered in Ghana’s agricultural growth by the report, a lot of hardworking farmers still struggle to get loans.
“Loans are expensive. Farmers cannot pay the high interest rates on loans. And this has prevented Ghana from achieving what it is supposed to achieve.”
The report, presented by Henri Leturque, who co-authored it, noted that with agricultural growth averaging more than 5 percent a year in the past 25 years, Ghana ranked among the top five performers in the world.
“This has contributed to major reductions in poverty and malnutrition, and Ghana will achieve the MDG 1 before 2015.”
He continued that economic reforms, since 1983, have played a major role in creating the conditions for private investment, driving growth in the cocoa sector in particular. Also, he noted that political leadership has been key to the growth in agriculture, supported by a working partnership between government and donors.
“Having raised food production per capita by more than 80 percent since the early 1980s, Ghana is largely self-sufficient in staples, owing in part to large increases in cassava and yam production as well as improved varieties.”
Touching on what has been achieved, the report indicated that after 1983, agriculture grew at an average annual rate of 5.1 percent, one of the five fastest growth rates anywhere in the world.
“The sector grew on most fronts. The most striking trajectory, especially since 2000, has been in cocoa, where production now exceeds levels seen before the 1970s recession.
“Staple crop production has also increased – cassava, yam, cocoyam and sweet potato in particular. With rising yields and a more than doubled harvested area since 1983, cassava production has grown by over 7.2 percent a year during the past 25 years,” Mr Leturque continued.
It furthermore stated that although involving fewer farmers, non-traditional exports have also taken off, with pineapple the most prominent of these adding, higher-value produce for the domestic market has risen rapidly as well with tomatoes being a prime example.
“Expansion of cultivated area has been important too, although productivity per hectare has increased more quickly than the size of land under cultivation.”
Poverty, most of it rural, it noted, has declined commensurately, adding farm incomes, albeit lower than the national average, has been rising, especially in the 2000s.
“Food supply has grown faster than the population has, making Ghana largely self-sufficient in terms of staples. At the same time, the real price of food has fallen. More accessible food meant that under-nourishment went down to 8 percent by 2003, from 34 percent in 1991.
“Child malnutrition has also declined, with the proportion of infants underweight falling from 30 percent in 1988 to 17 percent in 2008.”
Dr Emmanuel Tambi, Director, Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), in a presentation, said though Ghanaian farmers produce a lot, a larger part go waste due to the lack of appropriate processing facilities and ventures.
“There is the need for increased investment on these.”
Tia Alfred Sugri, Deputy Minister of Food & Agriculture, delivering the keynote address, said in 2010, over 925 billion people all over the world, including 239 million Africans, faced severe hunger.
“In Ghana, our farmers produced over 14.5 million tons of cassava; 5.9 million tons of yams; 3.5 million tons of plantain; 1.9 million tons of maize; 1.4 million tons of coco-yams; 350,000 tons of fish and 295,000 tons of rice among others in 2010. Ghana was able to avoid severe hunger.”
However, some experts have argued that the report greatly dwelt on the cocoa sector, disregarding the actual situations for other important food and cash crops.
In 2010, Ghana’s agricultural growth rate was 5.8 percent with an overall gross domestic product of 7.7 percent. According to the Economist Magazine, Ghana is projected to become the second fastest growing economy in 2011 with a growth rate of 14 percent second only to Qatar with a rate of 20 percent.
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