Story: George Ernest Asare, Kumasi
Farmers in the three northern regions whose farms were affected by heavy rainfall that flooded vast areas of farmlands last year lost cereals and other food items estimated at 257,076 metric tonnes.
Livestock — goats, sheep, cattle and fowls — were also killed during the heavy downpour, causing huge financial loss to livestock farmers.
It is also estimated that 97,244 hectares of farms were totally destroyed by the rains, which also destroyed as many as 39 irrigation dams and a number of wells, leaving crop farmers in the region poorer than before.
The Minister of Food and Agriculture, Mr Ernest A. Debrah, who announced this in a speech read on his behalf during the performance review workshop for directors of the ministry in Kumasi, pointed out that the flood also washed off many roads and bridges that linked farming communities.
Mr Debrah expressed concern about the economic loss to farmers in the three northern regions due to the heavy downpour and, therefore, urged the directors of the sector, and policy makers and those implementing agricultural programmes in the region “to judiciously and effectively utilise all resources to the benefit of the affected farmers”.
He gave the assurance that the government “together with our development partners and other stakeholders are determined to bring life in the three regions back to normalcy”.
He pointed out that through the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, the government was revising the Food and Agriculture Sector policy (FASDEP) “to meet the current challenges in the sector”, stressing that “the aim is to modernise agriculture and provide the critical linkage between agriculture and industry, based on the application of science and technology and sustainable land management and environmental practices”.
Mr Debrah said there was the need for the private sector to partner the government in a more effective way to enable it to achieve its objective of diversifying the sector to enhance increased exportation of processed agriculture products such as fruits and vegetables.
“There is the need for our best farmers, farmer-based organisations and other private sector actors to collaborate with the government and the related sector ministries, departments and agencies to constantly review significant challenges and formulate interventions that will be required to raise significantly the contribution and growth of the agricultural sector,” he stressed.
Mr Debrah said notwithstanding the challenges that had faced the sector over the years, it had experienced significant growth.
He said the growth rate of the agriculture sector increased from 2.1 per cent in 2000 to 4.4 per cent in 2002, stressing that in 2004, the growth rate was 6.5 per cent. This, he said, made it possible for the country to achieve self-sufficiency in the production of staple crops such as cassava, yam, maize and plantain.
He gave the assurance that the ministry was doing everything possible to further increase growth in agriculture to enable the country to achieve self-sufficiency in rice, meat and fish.
He commended development partners of the country in particular and farmers for their invaluable contribution to the growth of the sector and noted that the African Development Bank, for example, supported the sector with $168.8 million last year, bringing its total support to $300 million.
In his remarks, the Chief Director of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Dr Gyiele Nurah, noted that interventions such as “agricultural technology generation, and application, leading to new ways of farming, stand the best chance of generating significant improvements in agricultural outputs and income.”
He said investments were also needed in order to promote the most suitable agricultural technology.
This, he said, would enable the sector to raise productivity and embark on environmentally friendly farming activities.
He said it would also enable the country to take advantage of the new opportunities offered by world trade to strengthen the sector.
No comments:
Post a Comment