School farm proposal — New idea or already in existence?

Words do fall short of gravity, even the Lord seems to have no answer.

School farms were with us in both basic and secondary schools and I can boldly say that my basic school had a farm in the 1980s and '90s.

The school farm abruptly collapsed due to what I termed the removal of agriculture science as a subject from our basic school curriculum.

Introducing school farm

The current Food and Agriculture Minister, Eric Opoku, assured the vetting committee in parliament that he will use school farms to solve agriculture problems in this country.

"Secondary Schools will establish farms if I am approved as a Minister of Food and Agriculture," he said.

He further stated that the institutional farming initiative aims to encourage schools to actively participate in agriculture.

In addition, he also stated that the initiative would help boost the country's agriculture sector by utilising Ghana's vital land resources.

He made this statement in response to a question posed to him during his appearance before the Appointments Committee of Parliament on Monday, January 20, 2025.

School farms helped many of us to develop an interest in farming. Farming has been part and parcel of us since childhood, due to what we learnt in basic school.

Previous work

To set the record straight, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) was poised to implement free Senior High School (SHS) and also expand the School Feeding programme if elected, in subsequent general elections.

After winning the 2016 general elections, and ready to implement those pro-poor policies, I, Isaac Nyagbenu, put up a school farm proposal before the then Agric Minister, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, and Dr Mathew Opoku Prempeh then Education Minister.

A few months later, Dr Akoto told me they had set a date to launch the programme but would be done on a pilot basis.

I was not happy about the piloting but was convinced after receiving some explanations from him.

The programme was launched on Wednesday, June 21, 2017, at the Okuapeman Senior High School, Akropong.

About 120 schools were selected as beneficiaries of the piloting.

This is a public record which can easily be resorted to. A total of 185 educational institutions and other public institutions.

The purpose of the school farm then was to use it for solving the School Feeding Programme in basic and secondary schools, as well as colleges of education. The surpluses would then be sold out to the public and for exportation.

It's also intended to help reduce food inflation to the lowest rate since that's the albatross around the neck of this country.

Acknowledging predecessors

I was dumbfounded and devastated hearing Mr Opoku speaking as if he has no knowledge about what's happening in the same sector he's now manning as a minister.

The best thing to do was to acknowledge your predecessors for laying down what you think will help boost agriculture in Ghana.

I am on this note entreating  Mr Opoku to acknowledge his predecessors, Dr Akoto and Dr Opoku Prempeh, for bringing back the school farm he claimed to use to boost agriculture.

I am urging him to do the honourable thing by approaching his predecessors for the blueprint concerning the school farm programme.

This will enable the likes of me to support this laudable programme, which will drastically reduce the food inflation rate to the lowest.

The writer is a teacher
Email: nyagbenuisaac9@gmail.com