Kumasi, April 04, GNA – The Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana (PFAG) says it will continue to support the government in ensuring that there is enough food for the people in the country.
This is because peasant farmers had become the focal point for agricultural policy advocacy in Ghana and there was the need for them to constantly undertake activities and innovations that would help increase crop yield and productivity to ensure food security in order to remain relevant in the agricultural transformation agenda.
Mr Wepia Awal Adugwala, Board Chairman of PFAG, told the Ghana News Agency in Kumasi on the side-lines of the 2022 Annual General Meeting (AGM) that, the Association had developed a four-year strategic plan through social enterprises advocacy, capacity building and offering of agribusiness opportunities to aid members not only to increase food production but also to lift themselves from peasantry to prosperity.
The AGM which was held under the theme “Building Back Better, Consolidating the Gains of Smallholder Farmers for Improved Food Systems”, sought to elect new executives, review the Association’s constitution and reflect on the activities and plans in relation to food security in Ghana.
Mr Adugwala indicated that although the government’s initiatives of the One Village One Dam (1V1D), One District One Warehouse, Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ), One District One Factory (1D1F) brought high hopes to smallholder farmers, some of the projects were not yielding the expected impacts.
“We were all expectant of the impact these policies will have on farmers in general and were looking forward to a major and radical transformation of our agricultural sector to increase food production, provide jobs, increase incomes and improve the livelihood of farmers,” he stated.
He therefore, called on the government to assess the programmes and introduce some reforms to better the lives of peasant farmers.
Mr Adugwala also urged the government to in its quest to reform the implementation gaps of the PFJ, prioritize the generation of farmer databases for the purposes of targeting, especially for smallholder women and the youth farmers to enable them access subsidized fertilizer and other inputs.
The government should again consider rolling out a flexible loans scheme which guaranteed low interests for farmers.
This, he believed, would enable farmers to purchase input from the open market to support their activities.
He further called on the government to put a premium on the livestock industry, especially the rearing of ruminants such as goats, cattle and sheep in the country.
Source: Ghana News Agency
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