Attaining food sufficiency: Govt to introduce 2 agric programmes — Minister designate

The government of President John Dramani Mahama will introduce two new agricultural programmes, namely “Feed Ghana” and “Feed The Industry”, as direct measures to achieve food sufficiency in the country, the sector minister-designate, Eric Opoku, has told the Appointments Committee of Parliament.

The two programmes are intended to transform the agricultural landscape by addressing food security and supporting industrial growth as the government seeks to make the sector the engine and fulcrum of the economy.

The Minister of Food and Agriculture-designate explained that the “Feed Ghana” programme would focus on ensuring domestic food availability, improving productivity of crops, supporting farmers and agricultural investments, and employing sustainable farming practices to drive “the nation towards food sufficiency”.

The “Feed The Industry” programme, on the other hand, he said, would prioritise the development of agro-industrial value chains to encourage the production of raw materials for processing to support industrial growth and job creation.

“We want to establish a strong relationship between agriculture and industry, a symbiotic relationship in nature, so that as agriculture provides the raw materials, industry would be adding value, and in so doing, we will generate a lot of jobs and increase productivity,” Mr Opoku said at his vetting last Monday.

He said this in response to a question by the former Minister of Food and Agriculture, Dr Bryan Acheampong, who asked how he intended to deal with the myriad of challenges enumerated in the National Democratic Congress (NDC) manifesto to enhance agriculture in the country.

Land banks

Mr Opoku said per the election 2024 manifesto of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), the government would acquire large parcels of lands to serve as land banks for farming.

He said this was because the government acknowledged the difficulties associated with accessing lands for agricultural purposes as a result of the traditional land tenure system.

“Normally, people encounter a lot of difficulties accessing land for agricultural purposes. We want to make agriculture attractive. So we would want to acquire the land, prepare and hand it over to prospective investors so we can increase production and drive our nation towards food sufficiency,” Mr Opoku explained. 

Insurance scheme

The minister designate further announced that the government would roll out an insurance scheme to encourage financial institutions to lend credit facilities to farmers to bolster food security in the country.

Mr Opoku said under the initiative dubbed “Ghana Agriculture Insurance Scheme”, the government would subsidise agriculture insurance to enable farmers to have insurance on their farms.

“Once you have the insurance, the banks are ready to advance loans to you, knowing very well that whatever amount they give you can be repaid, so long as it falls within the limit of the insurance,” he said.

Food losses

The MP for Asunafo South told the committee that in 1965, the first President of Ghana, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, established the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) to provide credit facilities for the development and organisation of agriculture.

Unfortunately, he said, over the years, because agriculture in Ghana was rain-fed, financial institutions were unwilling to lend credit to farmers.

On how he intended to deal with food losses in the country, the nominee acknowledged that post-harvest losses were serious challenges confronting agriculture in the country.

To reduce food losses, he said the current administration would introduce agribusiness to encourage the private sector to put up mini-processing plants close to farms across the country.

That, he said, would allow harvested farm produce to be purchased and processed before being sold to big companies that needed them as raw materials to significantly reduce food losses.

Attractive

Mr Opoku also lamented the lack of interest by the youth in agriculture, citing a report issued in 2021 by a US-based organisation interested in ending hunger and poverty while protecting the environment.

The report, he indicated, suggested that only about five per cent of the youth were into farming.

The Minister designate described this as “unacceptable”, and pledged that he would put in place stringent measures to make agriculture attractive to particularly the youth.

He said the government would create huge markets for produce to boost the confidence of farmers who would be assured of making money from their hard work and crops, adding, “that is why in our manifesto, we have emphasised agribusiness”.

“The marriage between agriculture and industry where industry will serve as a huge market to buy from agriculture. Industry again, because of the 24-hour economy policy, will have to employ a lot of people,” Mr Opoku said.

The nominee affirmed at the confirmation hearing that the previous government cheated cocoa farmers by paying them as low as GH¢3,100 for a bag of cocoa, stressing that the current government would pay farmers better.

He said he made a constructive proposal to the government under former President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to consider giving Ghanaian cocoa farmers a minimum of GH¢6,000 for the 2024/2025 cocoa season.

In determining the producer price of cocoa, Mr Opoku said one had to look at the world market price of the commodity and the exchange rates.

He said in 2016, the world market price of cocoa was $2,950 per tonne when the exchange rate was $1 to GH¢3.90.

“And so when you multiply GH¢3.90 by the $2,950, the cedi equivalent of the per tonne value was GH¢11,505 and when you divide this by GH¢16, you get the per bag value of GH¢719.

“And so in 2016, every bag of cocoa sold from Ghana in the world market attracted GH¢719, and out of this, the Mahama administration gave cocoa farmers GH¢475 which constituted 66.06 per cent and kept GH¢244 which was just around 34 per cent,” he said.

The nominee indicated that part of the retained GH¢244 was used to procure fertilisers and chemicals to support cocoa farmers free of charge.

Short changing farmers

Arguing that the principle of the Cocoa Marketing Board (COCOBOD) had been that the cocoa farmer must be given 70 per cent of the cocoa price, Mr Opoku said such a principle had not been adhered to.

In the 2024/2025 season, the world market price of cocoa kept soaring on the back of global cocoa shortage, with the average price being $10,711 and the exchange rate being $1 to GH¢15.

“So, when you multiply per every tonne of cocoa, Ghana was earning the cedi equivalent of GH¢160,665 which when divided by GH¢16, you arrived at per bag value of GH¢10,042.

“But being mindful of the fact that the former government has plunged the cocoa sector into the abyss of debt, I was charitable to use 60 per cent which was the GH¢6,000 that we put out as a proposal for consideration.

“But the government decided to give cocoa farmers GH¢3,000 initially, which constituted 30 per cent of cocoa price,” Mr Opoku pointed out.