The Public Relations Officer of fresh fruit processing company, Blue Skies, is predicting food crisis in Ghana in the next two decades if diversions of land for real estate developments are not controlled.<\/p>\n
Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show<\/strong> on Monday, Alistair Gyimatey noted that the indiscriminate sale of lands threatens the\u00a0agriculture sector, which is the mainstay of the country’s economy.<\/p>\n According to him, many land owners now prefer to sell their lands to real estate developers\u00a0instead of leasing them for\u00a0farming.<\/p>\n The real estate sector is a booming business in Ghana with many companies exploiting the sector.<\/p>\n Mr. Gyimatey, who lamented that about 250 acres of their lands have been re-sold to real estate developers, thus called on government to review the policies on land tenure system in the country.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the policies on our land tenure system have to be reviewed and the laws have to be looked at again because most of these lands are stool lands and somebody within the clan says we don\u2019t want to give the land to you again, before you realize they\u2019ve sold the land to an estate developer.<\/p>\n \u201cPreviously, if you travel from Nsawam to Aburi, you will see pineapple farms along the hills. But that is not the case now. Most of the farm lands are being used for estate development. I think it is something that we need to look at.\u00a0If we don\u2019t put in measures to control them, I\u2019m sure in the next twenty years, we should be looking forward to some serious food crisis because we will end up giving all our lands for estate development,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n Mr. Gyimatey further lamented that \u201cthe sad thing is that when these lands are given out and the houses are built on it, what else can you do with the land? But if you give it for somebody to farm on it at the end of the season, they land will replenish itself and a whole lot of other activities can take place on it.\u00a0So we need to look closely at our land tenure system; it is not helping agriculture, it is not growing agriculture and if it continues the way it is, it is a recipe for disaster,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n About Blue Skies<\/strong><\/p>\n Blue Skies produces fresh fruit drinks from its factory at Nsawam in the Easter Region and employs over 3,000 Ghanaians.<\/p>\n \u201cWe basically process fresh fruits and fresh fruits products for major super markets in Europe and we have our freshly squeezed natural juice for the Ghanaian market. We export to 15 most premium supermarkets in Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n By: Godwin A. Allotey\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n