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| Section of participants at the forum |
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| Regional Director MOFA, Cletus Achaab |
Agricultural experts at a day’s dialogue
session in Bolgatanga has requested government to relax the policy ban imposed
on the recruitment of new Agricultural Extension Agents(AEAs) and consider
reviving the country’s Agricultural Training institutions, which he noted, are
at the verge of collapse. They argued that the production of AEAs coupled with
the resuscitation of the existing colleges will enable the country produce the
requisite human and managerial resource necessary to advancing modern
agricultural technology. More so, the production of more extension agents would
help augment the work of women volunteers engaged by MOFA to support farmers in
their farming activities. The dialogue session organised between an Integrated
Farmers Network (IFA) and heads of selected Municipal and District Assemblies also
addressed issues on fertilizer smuggling, accessibility of water for all year
round farming, operations of SADA, and decentralisation of buffer stock and
resourcing of NADMO among others. The rationale of the forum with funding from
Action Aid Ghana was to enable farmers contribute their quota towards the
attainment of the MDGs 1 and 7, which sought to address the problem of extreme
poverty and hunger and of ensuring environmental sustainability by 2015.
Participants at the function raise serious concerns on building community
resilience to disasters since their farming activities are often distracted by
persistent flooding and bush fires. They however tasked officials of NADMO and
the various security agencies to play their expected roles so that farmers will
not be found wanting anytime disaster occurs. They moreover challenged NADMO to
deliver on their mandate of providing prompt assistance to farmers when the
need arises. A representative from NADMO Mr Joseph Aserekama, in response to
allegations made disclosed that NADMO is under resourced to deliver on its
mandate, adding that there is no fixed planning and budgeting for disaster
activities since most disasters occur naturally. He said NADMO could function
as expected if government ensures the adequate release of relief items for
onward distribution to disaster victims. Touching on governments seed subsidy
programme, the Regional Director of MOFA, Cletus Achaab, identified lack of
storage facilities as one major challenge facing the distribution of improved
seed for planting, which he noted, are occasionally kept away from poor farmers
in remote areas. According to him, MOFA will work out modalities to ensure that
farmers get easy access to seeds and advised seed growers on the proper
handling of seed to sustain its quality for higher yield. Mr Kusi
Boamah who represented Action Aid provided some recommendations to improve the wellbeing of
farmers and challenged MOFA to sell some
of their interventions to government for
consideration.
GBC
END IA/
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