President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo says transformational policies implemented by his administration since it assumed office has led to significant growth in the agricultural sector of the economy making the country food sufficient and an exporter of food commodities.
According to him, the country which used to import food commodities from neighboring countries like Burkina Faso and Cote D’Ivoire has, under his government, attained food sufficiency hence meeting the consumption needs of its populace while exporting surplus of its agricultural produce to other sister West African countries including Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Mali and Niger.
The president said prior to his assumption of office, the growth rate of the sector was between 2 to 3 percent but has increased tremendously to 8 percent under his government. He added that the high growth rate recorded in the agricultural sector which has led to abundance of food supply in the country is as a result of the good policies his government has initiated and implemented including the flagship Planting for Food and Jobs Programme.
“I don’t think in the last 15 to 20 years I have seen Ghanaian agriculture performing so we’ll as it has been these last three and half years under the Planting for Food and Jobs Programme. There is abundance of food in the country and it is not by accident. It is as a result of correct policies we have implemented. So the 2 or 3 percent growth of agriculture that we came to meet has increased to 6, 7, 8 percent today,” he said.
“Ghana, today, is an exporter of food stuffs in West Africa. Trucks are coming into the main agricultural produce markets everyday from Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso to purchase food back to those countries. It tells you that our agriculture is working very strongly,” he touted.
For many years, he said, the country had not recorded such significant growth and had always relied on importation of food to meet the consumption needs of Ghanaians. Nana Addo said he was unhappy about the continuous importation of food into the country and had therefore initiated policies to improve the situation which he said has reversed the situation.
President Akufo-Addo stated that the abundant food supply in the country has minimized the economic hardships brought onto the country by the covid-19 pandemic.
“It is good that we are in that situation (exporting) than when we were importing tomatoes which I was complaining about. I was complaining about the importation of plantain from Cote D’Ivoire. The reverse is the situation now. The reason is that better policies have been put in place for the country. The economic hardships the covid-19 has brought on the world is not as sharp and deep in Ghana as it could have been. I’m not saying it has not brought hardship but the abundance of food has minimized the hardship,” he said.
Planting for Food and Jobs Programme which was implemented in 2017 by the Akufo-Addo government is aimed at increasing agricultural productivity and ensuring sustainable supply of food at cheaper cost as well as creating jobs for the youth of the country through the distribution of fertilizers and other farming inputs.
Though the bumper harvest recorded last year was attributed to the programme, the lack of storage facilities for the produce and the smuggling of fertilizer meant for distribution to famers under the programme have been a drawback.
