Government must pay attention to agriculture to eradicate poverty – Kufuor

Former President John Agyekum Kufuor has reiterated the need for government to attach the utmost importance to agriculture if the country can achieve its first Millenium Development Goal of halving extreme hunger and poverty by 2015.

According to him, Agric is the bedrock of the country so if government does not commit to sustaining and formulating new policies for the sector, the country may fall back into poverty.

Former President Kufuor, who was speaking on Dwaso Nsem on Adom FM on Wednesday from the United States, was commenting on a World Bank report that about 30 % of the population is wallowing in poverty.

In his analysis of what could possibly account for that, Mr. Kufuor explained that the country’s farmers are growing old while the younger generation is not taking up farming and unless they embrace agric actively, there will be problems for the country.

He also attributed it to the increasing numbers of people in the country explaining that if the pace at which the population increases outweighs productivity, then there is bound to be an increase in the poverty rate.

He therefore suggested that government should pay particular attention to the agric sector because it holds the country stressing the need for farmers to be encouraged with policies that will benefit them and urge them on to do more.

Former President Kufuor emphasized the need for government to help farmers access loans to produce on a large scale and boost productivity among other initiatives.

He said during his tenure of office, his administration put in place some initiatives which included providing fertilizers and pesticides for free to the farmers while giving them extensive education on new farming trends through Agricultural officers.

He said through those policies, cocoa production increased from 350,000 when the NPP took over in 2000 to 750,000 tons and now production is at a million tons.

The former President also talked about the Presidential Special Initiatives on Oil Palm (through which over 600,000 oil palm trees were planted), Cassava and others which he said initially people scoffed at but went a long way to encouraging production on a large scale.
He said since times are changing and innovations are coming up, government should also study the new ways of doing things and implement them in the country.

He called for the need to look critically at Planned Parenthood to help manage the rate at which the population is increasing.

The World Food Prize Foundation honoured former President Kufuor, and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, former president of Brazil, for creating and implementing government policies that alleviated hunger and poverty in their countries and commenting on his award, former President Kufuor said he had not expected to receive that honour although he had taken strides to help eradicate poverty.

He said he put in place policies especially in the Agric sector which went a long way to helping to halve extreme poverty adding that now Ghana is considered as a leading light in achieving the Millenium Development Goal One by 2015.

Story by Linda Safoa Antwi/Adomonline.com/Ghana