CSOs takes on govt over fertilizer subsidy for small scale farmers
The lack of subsidy on fertiliser for small-holder farmers has been identified as one challenge threatening the country’s food security.
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The coalition of civil society organisations (CSOs) has, therefore, asked the government to come out and state clearly how it intends to roll out the fertiliser subsidy programme for farmers in 2015.
The coalition said other challenges threatening food security in the country were disappearing farmlands and the increasing growth of the logging and forestry sector.
Speaking at a CSOs 2014/2015 budget analysis programme in Accra yesterday, the Programmes Officer of SEND-Ghana, a CSO, Mr Daniel Adotey, said farmers were in dire need of fertiliser subsidy to ensure food security.
Notwithstanding the fact that a fertiliser subsidy programme for farmers was captured in this year’s budget, it could not be implemented because the government owes fertilizer companies GH¢64 million, being subsidy on fertiliser distributed by the companies in 2013.
The CSOs programme, organised by SEND-GHANA and the Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana (PFAG), an umbrella body of small-holder farmers, provided a platform for farmers and other stakeholders in the agricultural sector to discuss the 2015 budget and prospects and challenges for the sector.
Agriculture
The country’s agriculture increased consistently from 2.3 per cent in 2012, 5.2 per cent in 2013 to 5.3 per cent in 2014.
However, the growth was on account of the forestry and logging sub-sector, which bounced back from a decline of 0.04 per cent in 2013 to a growth of 16.5 per cent in 2014.
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According to Ministry of Finance figures, the fishing sub-sector also maintained its recent positive growth path, growing by 7.1 per cent in 2014, up from 5.8 per cent in 2013.
However, the crops sub-sector experienced declining growth, growing at 3.6 per cent, down from 5.9 per cent in 2013.
Those figures, Mr Adotey observed had implications for food security in the country.
“This type of growth in agriculture means a depletion of our natural resources. For people in the sector, we are interested in growth in crops, livestock and fisheries,” Mr Adotey stressed.
“When forestry goes down and crops, fisheries and livestock go up, it is better for the sector because forestry does not directly put food on the table,” he added.
Involve peasant farmers in decision-making
The President of PFAG, Mr Mohammed Abdul-Rahman, asked that small-holder farmers be involved in the decision-making process, especially in the composite budget making process to help keep the government accountable.
“Small-holder farmers also want to exercise their right to participate in budget preparation, especially at the district assembly level where decisions taken affect them directly,” he said.
The lack of demarcation of lands in the country, clearly indicating forbidden areas for the real estate sector in the interest of agriculture, means that land grab in the real estate sector is taking over lands that used to be farms.
In the Greater Accra Region, he said, areas including Ashaiman, Dodowa and Afienya were losing prime agricultural lands to the real estate sector.
A similar takeover of farmlands is going on in the northern part of the country.