MPs commend farmers
Members of Parliament yesterday paid glowing tribute to the country’s farmers and said they occupied a vital position in the country’s march towards development.
They acknowledged the role farmers and fishermen played in feeding Ghana’s growing population, providing raw materials for the nation’s industries and contributing to the nation’s foreign exchange earnings and called for concessional loans for them and fair prices for the food they produced.
The MPs were contributing to a statement made by the member for Shama, Mr Gabriel Kodwo Essilfie, to mark the 30th National Farmers Day.
The global theme for this year’s celebration is “Family farming: Feeding the world, caring for the earth.”
It reflects the attention of the world on the significant role of family farming in eradicating hunger and poverty, providing food security and nutrition, improving livelihoods, managing natural resources, protecting the environment and achieving sustainable development, particularly in rural areas.
“Eat what we grow” has been chosen as the national theme for the celebration.
Mr Essilfie said he was particularly impressed with the national theme because it reinforced the call by the President for the patronisation of made-in-Ghana goods.
The theme, he added, was also in tandem with the national focus to enhance food security and increase production of food and raw materials for the development of the country.
“Mr Speaker, the theme for the celebration is to urge all Ghanaians to patronise produce from the Ghanaian farmer in order to improve the income levels of the farmers and accelerate the socio-economic development of the country. I, therefore, wish to encourage all Ghanaians to consume locally produced foodstuffs,” he said.
Quoting statistics from the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, the Shama MP said about GHc350 million was spent annually on rice imports and added that the consumption of locally produced rice would, therefore, help reduce the import bill.
He said the country had the capacity to produce enough to meet local demand and, therefore, challenged the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to meet the target within the shortest possible time.
While commending the ministry for initiating the Rice Sector Support project to develop more than 6,000 hectares for rice cultivation, he called for continued investment in the development of more rice fields in order to attain self-sufficiency in rice production.
Fisheries and poultry
Mr Essilfie said the fisheries sector contributed about 4.5 per cent of Ghana’s GDP and provided employment for an estimated 2.4 million of the population.
With regard to nutrition security, he said, fish products contributed to about 60 per cent of animal protein requirement of Ghanaians.
“Unfortunately, Mr Speaker, out of an estimated 968,000 metric tonnes of annual local demand for fish, about 50 per cent is produced at the local level; the remaining 50 per cent is met through imports costing the country an estimated GHc322 million.”
In the area of poultry products, he said, in spite of the capacity Ghana had to produce enough to meet local consumption needs, it imported large amounts of chicken every year.
He expressed the hope that the Ghana Broiler Revitalization Project which sought to provide direct intervention to intensify poultry production in the country would succeed.
