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Veep
addresses 23rd National Farmers Day in Wa
Wa, Dec.7, Ghanadot/GNA- Vice President Alhaji Mahama on
Friday addressed the 23rd National Farmers Day, in Wa, in
the Upper West Region, where he announced plans by
Government to provide seed support to farmers to facilitate
food production during the 2008 farming season.
He said the Ministry of Food and Agriculture had also
revised the Food and Agriculture Sector Policy to modernize
agriculture to provide the critical linkage between
agriculture and industry.
The Day, being observed during the last month of the
country's Golden Jubilee anniversary celebrations is on the
theme: "Ghana @ 50: Progress And Challenges of Sustainable
Agriculture Development."
The annual event, which falls in the first week of every
December, was instituted by the erstwhile Peoples National
Defence Council to pay tribute to the outstanding
contributions of farmers and fishermen to the national
development efforts.
Vice President Mahama expressed the need for the country to
boost domestic investment in the agro-industrial complex and
challenged farmers and the private sector to proactively
develop and provide adequate resources for the venture.
He touched on the recent drought and subsequent flooding in
the Northern, Upper East regions, where about 97,244
hectares of farms were destroyed with a potential loss of
about 257,076 metric tonnes of food.
Many roads and bridges linking farming communities were
washed by the floods while about 39 irrigation dams, houses,
livestock and other property were destroyed.
Vice President Mahama said the affected farmers would
benefit from a package to re-plant their farms.
Despite these setbacks, he said agriculture continued to be
the largest sector of the economy.
Vice President Mahama said agriculture provided about 36 per
cent of the total Gross Domestic Product and employed an
estimated 50.6 per cent of the economically active
population.
"Furthermore, the sector contributes about 52 per cent of
the total foreign exchange earnings and about 10 per cent of
government revenue."
Vice President Mahama said between 2001 and 2006, the
agriculture sector had steadily grown from 2.1 per cent to
6.5 per cent.
"As a result of this hard work, I am proud to acknowledge
that Ghana is reported by the Food and Agriculture
Organisation to be the only country South of the Sahara that
had already reduced hunger by 50 per cent up to 2006, 10
years before the target date of 2015."
Vice President Mahama said despite these sterling
achievements, government's effort to create the environment
for sustainable growth and development were being
constrained by a number of challenges.
These include rigid land tenure system, over-reliance on
erratic rainfall, inadequate marketing, post-harvest
management, poor access to inputs, limited financial
services, low use of modern technologies and an ageing farm
labour force.
Vice President Mahama announced that feasibility work and
designing of two proposed fishing harbours and 10 landing
sites initiated by the Ministry of Fisheries is ready.
He said funding arrangements were far advanced for the
commencement of the projects.
Vice President Mahama said the Ministry had also completed
arrangements for the construction of ice plants and
refrigeration facilities in some fishing communities early
next year with funding from the second Spanish Protocol
arrangement.
GNA
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