Working towards food sovereignty in Ghana
Once again, the National Farmers Day is here with us, with distinguished farmers and fishermen being celebrated throughout the country on Friday, December 5, 2014.
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The national event takes place at the Sefwi Wiawso College of Education Park in the Western Region, where the ultimate prize of a three-bedroom house will be picked by the National Best Farmer.
The national ceremony to climax the week-long celebration on the theme, "Eat What We Grow", will see the rewarding of 70 farmers, while awards presentations take place at the regional and district levels simultaneously.
Let us face it — there is no society that can be said to be independent if it relies on others to feed itself. The Mirror, therefore, agrees with the choice of theme for the celebration, for it is about time we took a serious look at appreciating our own, supported and promoted local food production for home consumption and export.
This will go a long way to help improve our foreign exchange earnings and reduce unnecessary imports, manage inflation and ensure macroeconomic stability.
We cannot deny the fact that our inability to ‘cure our ailing’ economy is partly due to our huge import bills relative to our export earnings.
We have acquired the taste for imported goods, at the expense of local materials. For instance, it is estimated that the state spends about US$270 million on poultry imports. We would be better off if we spent part of that amount to support the local poultry industry.
The Mirror is also concerned about the lack of adequate machines to facilitate speedy, timely and efficient harvest of crops, which remain on the fields, check post-harvest losses and generally add value to some of the farm produce to encourage our farmers to produce more and earn more from their toils.
It is about time we moved away from mere rhetoric and gave true meaning to the theme. It is important for us to devise appropriate technologies for us to reduce the drudgery associated with the hoe-and-cutlass farming, as well as move away from rain-fed agriculture to boost production.
We wish to call on the government to create land banks for the setting up of agro-based or export processing industries, while giving tax rebate to industries that are established in the rural areas.
One area worth looking at is the poor road network in the hinterland which hinders the carting of foodstuffs to the marketing centres, with the attendant huge post-harvest losses.
It is said that any person who cannot feed himself risks losing his dignity. And we cannot run away from the fact that our economy is bleeding because of our over-reliance on foreign goods. We import all manner of items, from such basics as toothpick to rice, for which we have the capacity to grow here.
We are capable and have been there before. For instance, during the Operation Feed Yourself programme in the 1970s, we were able to export rice and maize, at least , to some African countries.
The destiny of the nation rests on all of us and we owe it to posterity to resolve to turn the tide.
It is important to acknowledge that incentives such as the Farmers Day awards will spur particularly the youth on to take up agriculture as a vocation, for there is dignity in labour.
Let us do everything within our power to feed ourselves with food grown here as the first step towards giving meaning to our sovereignty.
While at it, The Mirror extends its appreciation to our farmers and fishermen for continuing to make food available on our tables.