Chairman for the National Farmers and Fishermen Award Winners Association of Ghana and also 2009 national best farmer, Mr. Davis Narh Koboe has welcomed the proposal on 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. Korboe, also known as Farmer Davies, described the call as being in the right direction, noting that traders must not decide the price for the farmers, the reason for which he argues that the mechanism must be in place to ensure that the farmers benefit from what they do.
Mr. Moses Baffour Awuah, Vice President of the Africa Youth Network for Agriculture Transformation, AYNAT, a Youth in Agriculture Advocacy programme, had earlier 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 where there is a fixed price for determining the prices of their produce.
The 2009 national best farmer intimated that the operation planting for food and jobs policy initiated by the Government of Ghana is already considering introducing the universal pricing system.
Mr. Korboe who is Board Chairman of the Farm Management Systems Limited explained that the government has selected few commodities to start the pricing mechanism under the planting for food and jobs program while hoping that they will start the selling by scaling and pre-determine the price program with those commodities.
He noted that those agitators register have been registered by the government and they will buy it in large quantities and keep them in a buffer stock which they will later distribute to public institutions such as schools, hospitals and any government institution which will be later paid by the government.
Once the mechanisms attached to the planting for food and jobs program works, Mr. Korboe assures, it will gradually have impact on commodities and farmers are going to be the winners.
He was convinced that the universal pricing policy was long overdue for farmers across the country to benefit from because all the surrounding countries are doing pre-determined pricing before cultivation starts.
Source: Austin Ofori Addo//ritefmonline.org
