By: Catherine Ahiador
Nana Ohene Mensah, an agronomist with East Lands Agro Inputs has expressed worry at what he says is the lack of corporation between the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and the Ministry of Trade And Industry which he notes is taking a toll on the agric sector.
According to Nana Ohene who made the observation on Rite FM’s Agrotech, a close examination of the Ministry of Food And Agriculture and the Ministry of Trade and Industry will point out the fact that the two ministries which are essential and critical to the advancement of the agric sector do not work together to help its cause.
The former CSIR member who attributed the failure of the agric sector to the two ministries cited instances where the Ministry of Food And Agriculture took decisions and plans without involving the Ministry of Trade and Industry.
This according to him created several difficulties for the farmers such as the trading of farm produce. He lamented on the importation of agric produce into the country at the expense of Ghanaian farmers, resulting in local farmers looking on as their farm produce got rotten, a situation he blamed on the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and the Trade Industry not working hand in hand.
Nana Ohene therefore impressed on the Ministry of Trade and the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to work together so that whiles the Ministry Of Food And Agriculture is giving subsidies and other necessary assistance to the farmers in other to cultivate and yield bounty harvest, the Ministry of Trade and Industry will also be planning on providing trucks to help carry farm produce from the farms to the markets for sale as well as storing and processing the farm produce at the markets.
‘By doing so, our farmers will be relieved of stress whiles our dear country saves its resources on importation of agric produce,’ he added.
Source: ritefmonline.org
