As the Ghana government moves to completely revolutionalise and transform the agricultural sector, President of the US/Ghana Chamber of Commerce, Philadelphia, Florence Torson Hart, has called on business players in the country’s agricultural space not to sit back but fully leverage the opportunities to be fully underlined under the government’s flagship programme christened, 24hour economic strategy.
“I am aware that agriculture and agribusiness through the entire agric value chain is one of the main areas of focus under the 24hour economic strategy and that’s why business people must be willing and ready to ensure that they adequately position themselves to take every advantage that will be opened by the government,” she said.
The 24hour economic strategy of the Mahama administration is a carefully crafted policy intervention meant to encourage and support certain businesses and companies to operate 24/7, preferably in a three-shift system of 8 hours each, by creating an enabling environment that promotes productivity, competitiveness and well-paying jobs.
Widely hailed as a major game-changing policy, the 24-hour economy policy will be a major boost for government’s import substitution and export drive with the aim to stabilise the national currency, improve the country’s foreign reserves, and bring down inflation, the major driver of which is high food prices.
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It is also expected to help lower interest rates, create more employment opportunities and generally improve livelihoods.
Opportunities
Speaking at the agriculture session during the 3rd US-Ghana Business Expo Roundtable and B2B matching at the Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, Mrs Torson Hart recalled the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and noted that, inherent in the disruption were a lot of opportunities which must not be lost on
Ghanaians, particularly in their quest to boost food production.
Attended by about 20 private businesses from Ghana and other potential US investors, she said the food disruptions globally which shot up food prices should be a major lesson adding that “Ghana has it all to be a leader in the production of agricultural products to become self-food sufficient and also boost its export market with agricultural products.
The 24hour economic strategy as outlined, has opportunities right from agricultural production, agribusiness, and through the entire value chain, and this is why I call on Ghanaian businesses to position themselves to take full advantage of the policy,” she admonished.
Mrs Torson Hart also encouraged American investors to identify and partner Ghanaian businesses in all the sectors open under the new policy direction of government, particularly the agricultural sector, to enable them to scale up production for export to the rest of the world including the US market.
Cooperatives
The Vice President of the chamber, David Webster, on his part prevailed on the business delegation to encourage farmers to go into cooperatives to enable to produce in large quantities for local consumption and for export.
Ghana’s agricultural sector is mainly hinged on subsistent farming making the country unable to fully leverage the potential in that sector to the fullest.
Mr Webster said for the agricultural sector to be transformed, there was the need for large scale farming and not subsistent farming.
“I know people have small tracts of land and they go into farming. Most of their harvest is consumed by family with very little sold for money.
But the narrative must change where farmers with small farms can come together to produce in large quantities in a more coordinated way,” he said.
Mr Webster also noted that through cooperatives, they stand a better chance of attracting support from various sources to scale up their production.
He also mentioned the drivers of growth in Ghana’s commercial food market saying that short term opportunities include investments that provide capital to currently operating agribusiness seeking to expand the production or processing of key commodities.
According to him, three such commodities have been identified as strong areas of opportunity for near-term investments such as cassava, rice and maize.