Redirect focus to larger farms— Dr Sakara

An agronomist, Dr, Abu Sakara Foster, has said the government should give a lot more attention to the establishment of large commercial farms to accelerate the growth of the Agric sector.

He said there was the need to encourage large-scale farming because the economy could only be transformed through agriculture if the focus was not always on small-scale farmers but on medium and large-scale ones as well.

Speaking at the Graphic Business/Stanbic Bank Breakfast Meeting on agriculture in Accra last Tuesday, on the theme, “Securing the economy with agriculture,” he said: “We need to refocus on large farms; from subsistence to a thriving enterprise; from old, tired farmers to vibrant, entrepreneurial and heavy investments; one that does not make us thirsty even when we live in water.”

Dr Sakara argued that concentrating on smallholder farmers alone at the detriment of medium and large-scale ones, as was being practised presently, could not drive the transformation needed in the Agric sector that would, in turn, transform the economy.

“We cannot continue on the basis of having only small-scale farmers. There has to be an evolution from small to medium and large-scale commercial farmers. If that evolution is not taking place, then the transformation is not taking place and that also determines how much we invest in each category of farmer. I think sometimes we focus only on the small-scale farmers to the exclusion of the medium to the large and commercial-scale farmers,” he added.

He, therefore, called on the government to resource smallholder farmers who were largely uneducated and lacked the required knowledge to access the needed finance to expand their farms.

Dr Sakara said when smallholder farmers had access to finance; it would help them to transition into medium and large-scale commercial farmers to substantially contribute to food production.

“And by the way, who says uneducated farmers cannot count money?” he questioned.