By
Fatima Astanga, GNA
Navrongo (U/E), Jan.
1, GNA – The Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana (PFAG) has pledged its
support for efforts being made to improve the agricultural sector towards
achieving nutritional and food security in the country.
Mr Abdul- Rahman
Mohammed, the National President of PFAG, said the Association appreciates the
effort of government and the directive for all institutions to purchase locally
produced rice.
He called for a more
collaborative effort with farmers to fulfill the drive towards achieving the
Sustainable Development Goals on food security.
Mr Mohammed was
speaking at an OSIWA and International Budget Platform sponsored one day
meeting of rice farmers in Navrongo, Kassena Nankana Municipal in the Upper
East Region.
The meeting was held
to take stock of rice farming in the 2019 cropping season and find strategies
for the sector’s development in the five regions of the northern part of the
country.
He said in view of
the contributory role agriculture plays to provide jobs for the people and for
national development, the setbacks were still enormous adding that low and
unreliable rainfall pattern, high cost of inputs and difficulty in accessing
subsidized fertilizer among others, were hindering farmers from making profits.
Mr Mohammed said
post- harvest losses, high cost of mechanization services, low extension
services and difficulty in accessing credit facilities for farming was
affecting the farmers and called on government to step up collaboration with
farmers for the successful implementation of agricultural policies.
Mr Charles Nyaaba,
the Head of programmes of PFAG, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency,
said there are still challenges in accessing combine harvesters, storage
facilities, and buyers for the locally produced rice.
He said more
harvested rice have not been bought and were still on the farms at the mercy of
wild fires adding that buyers who promised to mop up the rice never showed up
but concentrated their activities elsewhere.
Mr Nyaaba said “if
we do not find ways as a group to provide government with recommendations to
improve the rice sector, “people will mislead and sideline those who are
expected to support the rice sector growth since they do not even own farms”.
He urged government
to continue to encourage public institutions to purchase locally produced rice,
reduce importations and find ways to deal with the right people so that rice
marketing challenges could be addressed.
He said
mechanization services were still very poor and expressed the hope that
stakeholders would make recommendations on the type of mechanizations that
would suit each of the rice valleys.
GNA