Agri Local

Shai Osudoku Is the Bread Basket of Greater Accra Region – Dr. Kpessah Whyte

Research Fellow at the Institute of African Studies at the University of Ghana, Dr Michael Kpessah Whyte has described the Shai Osudoku District as the bread basket of the Greater Accra region.

Dr. Kpessah Whyte, an indigene of the district told Rite news in an interview that the district’s status and its ability to produce various produce positions it as the bread basket of the district.

The Shai Osudoku district boasts of various farming activities. Main crops produced include maize, cassava, rice, tomatoes, garden eggs, okra, pepper, watermelon, sugarcane, banana, pineapple, pawpaw and exotic vegetables (for export).  Tree crops grown are mainly mangoes with a few small-scale cashew plantations in the Ningo area.

Livestock production consist of cattle, sheep and goats with a large local poultry population, some medium scale holdings and few commercial holdings.

The Research Fellow who extolled the agricultural potentials of the district said these such apt credentials perfectly place the Shai Osudoku district as a bread basket of the capital region.

“The potential for agriculture development is phenomenal; the sky is the limit. Within the Shai Osudoku district we have opportunities for growing mangoes, plantains, tubers, palm and coconut. The largest banana farm in West Africa is right here in the Osudoku district, and we also have the large community farmers also located within the district. This tells us that within the Greater Accra Region, Shai Osudoku can be accurately described as the bread basket in many ways,” he pointed out.

The district, he added is also home to a prolific beekeeping activity that produces arguably the best honey in the country.

In spite of these potentials of the sector, Dr. Whyte regretted what he referred to as the lack of the needed attention for the agric sector in terms of incentives and the creation of opportunities for young people to leverage.

The lack of these, he added, accounted for the lack of interest in the sector by the youth.

“There is a backward negative effect where many of our young people who otherwise would have taken interest in agriculture are walking the streets unemployed and that phenomena has a negative backward linkage to some of the challenges that we have seen with respect to violence, armed robbery and the likes,” he said.

To him, agriculture must be given the due priority required by the sector to realize its fullest potentials.

One District, One Factory

The former presidential staffer in the erstwhile Mahama administration in doubting the successful implementation of the NPP government’s one district, one factory policy, described the policy as “a nice slogan to win votes,” adding that the foundation of the policy was problematic.

According to him, no feasibility studies was done in the run up to the implementation of the policy.

“The One District, One Factory policy by the current government was a nice slogan to win votes,” he posited. “The foundation of the policy is problematic because no feasibility studies was conducted to assess how the factories will operate, sources and availability of raw materials and its target groups for employment.”

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in 2017 inaugurated the One District, One Factory initiative which kick-started a policy set to ignite Ghana’s industrialisation and set her on course for socio-economic development.

The programme is aimed at establishing, at least, one factory or enterprise in each of the 216 districts of Ghana as a means of creating economic growth poles that would accelerate the development of those areas and create jobs for the teeming youth.

The policy aims to transform the structure of the economy from one dependent on production and export of raw materials to a value-added industrialised economy, driven primarily by the private sector.

But Dr. Kpessah Whyte said that up to date, there’s no well thought out document for the policy in terms of research or analysis to show.

To him, the success or otherwise of the policy largely borders on the suitable steps being applied by government to determine the appropriate factory for each district.

Source: ritefmonline.org

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