By Joyce Bedeley:
Chairman of National Farmers and Fishermen Award Winners Association of Ghana (NFFAWAG) who is also the 2009 National Best Farmer, Mr. Davis Narh Korboe has decried Ghana’s over reliance on cocoa as her main export commodity. This according to the ‘Farmer Davies’ is a recipe for disaster for the country’s future in the agriculture sector.
According to him it is high time Ghana promoted other crops like cashew and mango to add to the country’s export commodities.
Mr. Narh Korboe who was speaking during the 32nd National Farmer’s Day celebration in Kintampo on Friday also touched on other concerns confronting local farmers. These included his call for fertilizer subsidy programs which he argued needs some repacking.
‘There’s the need to take a second look at and repackage our fertilizers to ensure that it gets to the peasant or smallest farmers directly instead of the current trend whereby most of the fertilizers end up being smuggled out of the country or end up in the hands of some Agro input dealers who eventually sell them on the open market at a high cost,’ the former best national farmer charged.
Mr. Narh Korboe called on the government to offer a listening ear to farmers within the private sector. This he said hinges on the belief that Ghana is a country that survives on Agriculture.
He urged the youth to realize the dignity and opportunities that hovers around Agriculture and take advantage of them while calling on agribusinesses to unite in order to promote the sector.
Source: ritefmonline.org
