Interventions for small-scale farmers will boost agriculture – GTLC

The Ghana Trade and Livelihood Coalition (GTLC) says Ghana would see more growth in agriculture if targeted and effective interventions are instituted for small scale farmers in the crop sector.

Presenting findings from its 2014 and 2015 Agro Policy Performance Barometer Report, the Coordinator, Mr Ibrahim Akalbila, noted that the research findings from 2012 to 2015 showed a strong correlation between the performance in terms of yields in the crop sector, particularly rice and tomatoes, and the growth in the crop sector and agriculture as a whole.

He said the trend showed that increases in yield reflected in the growth of agriculture as well as the dips in the sector.

The report was on the theme: ‘The Promise of Success: Adequate Coordination and Investment in Small Scale Agriculture.”

The findings showed that average rice and tomato yields, for instance, grew in 2013 from 1.06 and 3.85. In the same year, growth rates in the crop sub-sector increased to 5.9 per cent, while agriculture increased to 5.7 per cent.

This year was the only year that Ghana came close to achieving its estimated annual agriculture growth rate of six percent.

In 2015, the average yields for rice and tomatoes dipped to 2.05 and 0.91, after it increased in 2014 to 2.17 for rice and 3.86 for tomatoes.

This is reflected in the 2015 growth rate for the crop sector and agriculture; which decreased to -1.7 and 0.04 per cent

“We have seen that we have a lot more of our farmers doing small scale farming and that policy is not actually targeting them appropriately.

“We have also seen that any dip in the growth of the crop sector has an implication on the growth of agriculture in Ghana,” he said.

The report also highlights the need for more skilled youth in agriculture. While most small scale farmers, 382 (61.1 per cent) from 36 to 55 years, majority of them did not have formal skills, especially women who depended on family, relatives and friends.

Mr Akalbila explained that the large number of small scale farmers in the productive age group did not reflect in the yields and showed that while; the youth were encouraged to go into agriculture, it was more important for more skilled youth to go into the sector.

“We tend to see a high level low-skill where this category of people are concerned. Ability to be able to appreciate the use of knowledge is one particular challenge that we are face and it is good to have a kind of system that enables them to acquire skills in the cultivation of the crop that they are going into,” he said.

Mr Akalbila said interventions like the Youth in Agriculture Policy did not go beyond partisan politics, which was a big problem.

He expressed the need for coordination and investment into coordinating institutions like the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, as well as specific guidelines and modules on how interventions would be carried out, how to specifically target the various crop sectors.

The report, covering 2014 and 2015 was to provide a critical assessment of government’s policy commitment to the implementation of Medium Term Agriculture Sector Investment Plan (METASIP 2011-2015) as well as the attainment of the annual GDP growth rate of at least six per cent.

GTLC also announced it had developed an Agro Barometer Index and to be publish in October.

Source: GNA