SUSTAINING SCHOOL FEEDING PROGRAMME — Govt must make agriculture attractive (PAGE 11, OCT 9)

THE General Agricultural Workers Union (GAWU) has urged the government to make agriculture attractive for it to support and sustain the Ghana School Feeding Programme and the textile industry .
“GAWU is totally convinced that agriculture without an industrial strategy linked to it , is not the way of development, nor can Ghana’s economy grow to the benefit of the people of Ghana through an export-led growth that is dependent on agriculture and other primary commodities”,
The General Secretary of the GAWU, Mr Kingsley Ofei-Nkansah, who made these remarks said if the government could make any strides at revamping the national economy and make the better Ghana slogan worthwhile, “then we should reduce the drudgery of agriculture and not only make farming more attractive to the youth, but should also revamp industries and make them more viable and productive”.
Addressing members of the Ashanti Regional branch of GAWU in Kumasi as part of their golden jubilee celebration , Mr Ofei-Nknasha noted , “countries depending on agricultural and other primary commodities for export are most vulnerable to crises that are not their own making”, , stressing that “if we are to make any significant gains from trade and learn any lesson from the global crises, then industrialisation is necessary”.
About 600 members from various departments of the GAWU attended the golden jubilee celebration which had the theme “50 years of organising agricultural workers for development, achievements, challenges and prospects”
The theme was adopted to enable the members to effectively reflect on the strength and weaknesses of the organisation and devise a more improved means of enhancing its contribution towards the country’s development.
Recalling events of the past 50 years and the numerous challenges encountered by both industry and agriculture, he said ,GAWU grew from the effective development of the State Farms, Workers Brigade and other state interventions which saw an accelerated development of industries such as the bast fibre, shoe , meat and canneries as well as vegetable mills paper production mills , and textile industries.
He attributed the downward trend of both agriculture and industry to the combined effect of “massive retrenchment of labour and the drastic reduction in formal employment associated with the sap which cut down the membership to less than 20,000 in the mid nineties”.
Mr Offei-Nkansah pointed out that GAWU was now at the forefront of campaigning for industrialisation because it was the backbone of agriculture .
“Domestic and international trade policies that preserve domestic markets for domestic producers with particular reference to rice, poultry, especially guinea fowl, should be vigorously pursued ,” he said.
He said it was equally important for the government to “review the interim economic partnership agreement with the active participation of civil society representatives so as to remove many unjust clauses which may impact negatively on Ghana’s economic and social development ”.
Mr Ofei -Nkansah also urged the government to actively support small scale farmers to produce more to enable the country to become sufficient in food production as well as create surpluses for export to countries in the West African sub-region.