Our expectations from the incoming Agric Minister

Until recently, when the services sector overtook agriculture as the biggest contributor to gross domestic product (GDP), the business of farming and its allied sub-sectors accounted for the largest chunk of total goods and services produced in the country.

This was understandable, given the agrarian nature of the country and the economy in particular.

After emerging from colonialism, many Ghanaians, both in the rural communities and cities, quickly embraced farming as a traditional source of income and livelihood for them and the nation.

This received a further boost in the early 1970s, when Gen. I. K. Acheampong introduced the ‘Operation Feed Yourself,’ a national policy that was aimed at raising food production to appreciable levels.

As a result, in spite of the minimal investments in industrialisation and the provision of services, agriculture remained a dominant occupation in the country, employing almost a half of the total population.

However, in the early part of the 201st Century, the services sector managed to topple the agricultural sector, after years of investments, good policy initiatives and a global shift helped to spur strong growth in telecommunications, banking and insurance services.

Although a strong growth in services should not, in anyway, affect the performance of the agriculture sector, given their distinct nature, it appears the rise in services has been the bane of the farming business in the country.

Since 2010, when services replaced agriculture as major contributor to GDP, growth in the latter has been challenged, with annual growth rates declining to single digits.

From a share of GDP of over 50 per cent before 2010, agriculture now accounts for about 22 per cent of total economic output in the country.

While many politicians have tried to explain off the drop in agric’s share of GDP as a normal occurrence in the lifecycle of every economy, evidence abound that such an explanation cannot be tenable in an economy that still struggles to feed itself.

Last year, the New Patriotic Party estimated that import of rice, wheat, vegetable oil, salt and vegetables cost the country an average of US$2.2 billion.

From a low of US$344 million in 2007, imports of these staples rose to US$2.3 billion in 2014 before declining slightly to US$2.1 billion in 2015, according to the party at the time.

Although this strong growth in imports reflects the strong growth in the economy and the population, mention must be made that they occurred at the expenses of growth in the agricultural sector.

This is what the incoming Minister of Agriculture, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, will be expected to help reverse.

Having strongly crticised the past administration for doing little to salvage the fortunes of the sector and by extension the farmers, Dr Akoto now has a golden opportunity to turn things around for the better, should Parliament approve his nomination to the ministry later this month.

How he will fare will depend on his approach to finance, agro-processing, light manufacturing and supply and inputs to farmers.

Beyond improving the lot of farmers, we at the GRAPHIC BUSINESS will expect Dr Akoto to introduce policies that will help spur growth in agro-processing in the country.

In spite of the strong demand for processed food juice in the country and the sub-region at large, it is sad to note that the country still does not have clear strategy that ensures the food produced is properly processed to avoid going waste.

If properly handle, processed juice could easily become a big foreign exchange earner to the national economy.