Agriculture, which is the economic mainstay of most people in the Northern Region, is declining in the Tamale Metropolitan Area.
A policy narrative produced by a group of stakeholders who convened in early 2015 in Tamale, said rapid urbanization is affecting urban and peri-urban agriculture in the Tamale Metropolitan area.
One of the most critical concerns captured in the report is the decrease in available lands as chiefs prefer to sell plots to private developers.
The report recommended that institutional advocacy for land reform could be used as a solution to the sale of farm lands to private developers.
“The diverse statutory land planning and traditional institutions need to be more effectively linked up, so that these areas are gazetted as agriculture land. Concentration of farmers in dedicated sites would facilitate training and water distribution; there is also a need to promote backyard cultivation as well as institutional strengthening of farmers’ associations.”
The policy narrative proved that Tamale has the potential of incorporating agriculture into a holistic, sustainable city vision for which reason the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly should purchase bigger flood prone areas for farming.
Stakeholders at the second meeting held in Tamale on Thursday, made inputs into the compilation of a strategic policy agenda to enable the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly encourage urban and peri-urban agriculture.
Convener of the stakeholder meetings, the Urban Agriculture Network (URBANET), an NGO, is optimistic the strategic policy agenda will be set by March 2016.
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By: Abdul Karim Naatogmah/citifmonline.com/Ghana