The 2018 National Best Youth Farmer, Mr Gustuv Anor Owuredu has said bad road, especially in rural farming communities, is retarding the growth of the agriculture sector.
Speaking to Rite Morning Ride in the week, he said he has realized Ghana as a country has the potential to produce enough to feed her citizenry but, lack of proper planning, research back-up and infrastructure are factors that have bedeviled the agriculture industry.
“Research capacity and infrastructure as well as the human resource level are some of the challenges that impede cashew production and agriculture as a whole,” he said.
Mr Owuredu was quick to add that road transport plays an important role in agricultural development, partly because it is a major means of transporting agricultural produce from farms to the markets centers as well as to various urban communities.
Ghana’s agriculture has been living below its potential, characterized by low productivity and primitive farming methods.
The award winner called for the modernization of the sector by increasing the use of modern machinery to accelerating the adoption of new technologies to raise productivity.
Gustuv Anor Owuredu said the reality, however, is that much of the investment in agriculture is driven by Western donors — government transfers are often only enough to pay salaries and keep institutions running — who lately have shown a penchant for not fully honoring their commitments.
He said Cocoa, which is backed by strong state support including subsidies to farmers, has been one of the few bright spots in the sector — with Ghana maintaining its position as the world’s second-biggest grower of the crop but the sector is faced with several challenges which include bad road network, impacting negatively on the sector.
Therefore called on the government to invest massively into roads infrastructure to ease the burden on transportation of goods and services from the farm gate to the market and, also provide support to people in the agriculture value chain which includes financial institutions, equipment manufacturers, processors, service providers, retailers, traders, exporters and farmers.
He encouraged investors and farmers both small and commercial in the sector to take advantage of government flagship programs namely the planting for food and job, planting for food and export development, aquaculture for food and job, rearing for food and job and the 1district 1factory policies to turn the fortune of the sector.
By: Austin Ofori Addo/ritefmonline.org
