Residents decry inadequate support for rural farmers

Lead advocate of a project which seeks to promote Gender and Social Inclusion in Agriculture, Tamale Based Diamond Fm says much is required of central government to support the aged, persons living with disabilities and women who depend on agriculture to survive.

The Project Manager, Nelson Adanuti Nyadror raised this concern at the launch of an alternative policy document to serve as a guide to the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) in the areas of planning and programming.

He lamented, “For us one category of farmers that have often being left out though they play a key role in feeding us are women, persons living with disabilities and aged farmers.”

He told Citi News on the sidelines that with sufficient support from government, the aforementioned category of farmers will double their yields to maximize their profit margins.

“You realized that people say farming has become unattractive to the youth these days but there are the aged or old farmers that continually till the land to feed us: Diamond Fm feels that with little support, these farmers can do extra.”

Nelson Adanuti Nyadror identified the lack of agric inputs such as fertilizer, certified seeds, agro chemicals, tractor and extension services, arable land for cultivation, lack of Agri information and access to market as some of the bottlenecks hindering rural agriculture in Northern Ghana.

He said with sponsorship from multi donor fund Managers STAR Ghana, Diamond Fm has being running an advocacy project codenamed, “Tackling bottlenecks in rural agriculture.”

“Over the last one year, Diamond Fm has gained support from STAR Ghana to run the an advocacy project dubbed tackling bottlenecks in rural agriculture specifically how to have access to Agri-inputs can be improved.”

The General Manager of Diamond Fm, Iddrisu Abdul Rashid reaffirmed the station’s dedicated services to promote rural agriculture.

He implied, “Through the power of radio, we can boast of raising the consciousness of farmers, civil society and more importantly government on the challenges within the agricultural sector especially on input supplies and information flow to women, persons with disabilities and the aged.”

Iddrisu Abdul Rashid anticipated that MOFA will adopt the designed document as blueprint to facilitate its roles during the distribution of agricultural inputs in some selected districts come the planting season.

Programmes Manager of Send Ghana, John Nkaw admonished government to promote food sufficiency by providing financial backing to farmers.

He observed that the removal of subsidies on fertilizer and other agricultural essentials had adversely affected food production especially in rural communities where the people survived on peasant farming.

John Nkaw predicted food insecurity in Ghana if government abandoned its loyalty to the agric sector.

A retired Agric Extension Officer who is into peasant farming, Madam Rabi Adam said fighting poverty in Northern Ghana will be an exercise in futility if government does not make agriculture attractive to the youth.

According to her, the gradual collapse of the agriculture sector accounted for the mass exodus of girls from rural communities in Northern Ghana to the southern belt.

“This is the position small holder farmers in Northern Ghana hold strongly that news of kayayee often girls from the north migrating to the south for menial jobs and with no better places to rest their heads at night shouldn’t come as a surprise to us especially with the gradual collapse of agriculture.’

She revealed, “As we speak inputs like fertilizer for this year hasn’t come closer to our region let alone our communities or even the farmers’ doorsteps.”

Madam Rabi Adam demanded appropriate responses from government asking, “Where is the rice city now? What has happened to the farms along the Tamale highway through Savelugu all the way to Bolgatanga?”

She advocated the need for de-politicization of agriculture as best means of tackling the bottlenecks and murkiness in agric-input supplies with special attention on small holder farmers.

“Without the politicking how fast will the bottlenecks and murkiness in agric-input supplies be dealt with for our small holder farmers to even be convenience that they can also go commercial?” she asked.

Madam Rabi opined that if women had the same access to productive resources as men, they could increase yields on their farms by 20 to 30 percent.

This, she added could have raised total agricultural output in developing countries by 2.5 percent to four percent which in her estimation could have in turn reduced the number of hungry people in the world.

She thereby implored MOFA and its collaborators in the agricultural sector to adopt Diamond Fm’s advocacy document as a working instrument.

With women being the majority, the participants were drawn from the Tamale Metro Area, Sagnarigu and East Mamprusi districts in the Northern Region.

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By: Abdul Karim Naatogmah/citifmonline.com/Ghana