Players in the Agriculture sector have expressed grave worry that government continues to depend hugely on foreign partners to implement its agricultural programmes and projects.
They cited the Modernising Agriculture in Ghana (MAG) Programme funded by the Canadians.
The sector players said the recent shortage of fertilizers and other inputs could be blamed on this along with the lack of financial commitment on the part of government and the Ministry of Food and Agriculture.
An Agricultural Development Expert Emmanuel Wullingdool speaking to A1 Radio in Wa said, another concern is the Ministry of Food and Agriculture’s inability to recoup monies invested in acquiring inputs under the Planting for Food and Jobs Programme.
Mr Wullingdool however commended government for releasing funds to address the issue of fertilizer shortage.
He said while the intervention may have been a tad late, most crops would recover with minimal damage due to the availability of the fertilizers and the resumption of the rains.
“It is better late than never. There are different types of farmers; you have the large scale and the small scale. Secondly, we do not have a uniform planting period. There are some people who still need the product even though it is coming late. Those who planted early and needed it at a particular time may lose out. We need to know that a lot of these inputs are time bound.”
“It also has to do with commitment. Agricultural budgets over the years have not received the needed attention. You will realize that a lot of the funding that comes in is donor funding,” he said.
Mr Wullingdool who doubles as the Managing Director of the Wullingdool Consultancy encouraged government to make good use of the data from the recent Agriculture Census conducted by the Ghana Statistical Service.
Source: A1Radioonline.com|101.1MHz| Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Ghana
We have been practicing agric , how to farm , how to fen for ourselves all these centuries . We only need to evolve from where we started and where we are today to where we are reaching as population stares at us, we need to do agric at our point of view that does not damage our land, that integrates animal farming into our practices. We dont need foreign dependency on agric , is a snare. Our children would pay dearly for our reckless appetite.