The Vice President of the Africa Youth Network for Agriculture Transformation, AYNAT, a Youth in Agriculture Advocacy programme, Mr. Moses Baffour Awuah has called on the appropriate authorities to introduce a Universal Pricing System of determining prices of farm produce to reduce the risk farmers go through in the sale of their produce.
Mr. Baffour who doubles as the Chief Executive Officer of GrowS Hort, an Agribusiness Incubation Center under the African Youth Network for Agricultural Transformation, (AYNAT) while speaking on Rite FM’s Agric Forum on Saturday compared the situation where there is the lack of a universal pricing system to that of cocoa farmers who enjoy a fixed price for determining the prices of their produce.
He said this situation presented the cocoa farmers with the opportunity of knowing what financial returns they stood to gain from their sales while other farmers were disadvantaged.
The Farm Gate Prices are determined by post harvest committees whose main aim is to protect the Ghanaian farmer by guaranteeing a secured income for them. They take into consideration the production cost to the farmer plus a 10% profit margin.
The AYNAT boss thus expressed his worry that other farmers are left to their fate in the determination of the prices for their farm produce in the absence of a Price Controls System to regulate the prices of what they produce.
“For the Ghanaian farmer to be able to budget on his farming activities, a universal pricing system is important in order to aid a bankable business plan,” he stressed.
He equally regretted the situation whereby traders decided the prices they paid to farmers, a practice Mr. Baffuor described as a factor discouraging the youth from venturing into agriculture.
This he said will bring a lasting solution to post harvest losses in the country.
Mr. Baffuor could also not fathom the situation where farmers paid huge sums of money to land owners after leasing land for their farms but can’t even be guaranteed an appreciable price after their harvest. This practice according to Mr. Baffuor is bad press for the country.
Source: Austin Ofori Addo//ritefmonline.org
