At some recent point in our history our Agric sector was thriving and our fresh food exports was earning us good money. But something went wrong, we forgot everything we know and have pushed this highly important area of our development on the back burner.
Ghana’s Agric sector has some lessons to relearn when it comes to keeping our food basket full.
A Shocking Decline
Ghana’s agriculture sector, in a decade, has shockingly declined in output, and more surprisingly, its contribution to GDP has fallen from 30.4% in 2005 to 19% in 2015.
Despite some interventions from both public and private sectors, financially and technological wise, the sector is fast dwindling. Almost $1.5 billion was spent on importation of basic foods like rice, tomato, palm oil and sugar in the year 2014 alone.
This has been blamed largely on climate change, but some agricultural experts have shared the view that it is time to start looking elsewhere for the sector’s sluggish growth in the country.
Rene Haveman, an Agri-entrepreneur and Managing Director at Terra Agric International BV, in an interview with Business World noted that concentrating on climate change alone as a factor undermining Agric enterprise in Ghana is wrong.
“Climate change affects agricultural success at a rate of -0.7%. I don’t think the Ghanaian agricultural success story depends very much on irrigation” he said.
Instead he finds a lack of passion for Agribusiness among some Ghanaian farmers as a main cause for the sector’s sluggish growth over the years.
What seems to be the problem?
“The first thing a successful farmer needs to have is passion, otherwise it becomes difficult to succeed” Haveman said.
This, he says, is because of our education system and approach in the country by focusing less on Agricultural prospects, thereby compelling graduates to take up other professions, leaving few, mostly impassionate ones in Agriculture sector.
Moreover, he noted that most academia who are into agriculture “prefer research work to field work” because our education structure focuses more on academics than the practical and that affects productivity negatively.
“I believe those with education lack agricultural practical skill.” He continued, “Education is on the wrong foot if it is not focusing on practical farming skills.”
According to Haveman, Ghana’s Agriculture sector can get back on track, to support the country’s economy massively but to achieve this “we need passionate farmers who know it all”
“We need farmers who can plough, spray, cultivate, operate machinery etc. Farmers need to learn how to use technology to the best of its capacity”
According to the organization, poor and insufficient education is limiting productivity and the acquisition of skills, while insufficient access to knowledge and information is hindering the development of Agric entrepreneurial ventures in developing countries.
This is a sad state of affairs especially in Ghana where only decades ago, our agricultural industry received the attention it deserved.
It wasn’t always like this
In the 60’s, there was a well-organized system of Agricultural production which involved private farmers and public organizations. Private farmers were encouraged to create co-operatives. This enabled the farmers to obtain access to machinery and modern techniques, which might otherwise have been beyond their resources and thus increased productivity.
For wider application of known technology for improved productivity, Extension Service was made an integral part of the policy geared towards agricultural growth and development. This was to facilitate ready increase in agricultural production by extension of acreage and by the adoption of new farming methods in the large scale farms.
Over the following years with the disturbances in subsequent governments and corruption, this well informed structure tumbled.
There have been isolated and insufficient efforts to restore and improve that Ghanaian agricultural sector but needless to say, these haven’t worked well.
There has, however, recently been a renewed interest in Agri-business by the youth. They are employing technology to help older farmers get access to more advanced resources to grow their farming activities. Some have also entered farming directly by concentrating on cash crops like rice, fruits and vegetables for export and local consumption.
“Agricultural training and education must be adapted to ensure that graduates’ skills meet the needs of the rural labour market. Incorporate agriculture skills into education” Terra Agric International BV urged.
Experts also suggest both private and public investments to support Agriculture initiatives and further deepen the youths’ interest. They recommend the acquisition of the necessary skills and for them to see Agriculture as a professional career move.
It is believed that, such self-motivated and proactive youth in the sector will pursue agribusiness against all odds.
Elsewhere in Africa
In Uganda, two graduates from University of Kampala, Edward Mukiibi and Roger Sserunjogi founded the Developing Innovations in Schools Cultivation (DISC) project in 2006. The project targeted ten primary schools and five secondary schools.
During the programme, students learned everything about food production from farm to table as they cultivated vegetables and learned how to preserve vegetable seeds for the next season of cultivation. Also, school chefs taught them how to cook and make fruit juices.
The aim of the project was to improve nutrition and environmental awareness but in the long run it helped to grow the students’ interest in farming.
This experience was also a success in Kenya where over 850 young people were enabled to discover more about agriculture as a profession through the Farms Africa initiative, YESA, where students were taught how to grow high-value crops, keep livestock and market produce to global markets.
Young people account for a larger percentage of the Ghanaian population. More than 45 percent are under 25 years and they mostly want to come to the metropolis to make a living for themselves despite the need for workforce in Agriculture.
Sufficient Agricultural output cannot be achieved without Ghana’s population majority. This will not only help cut down youth unemployment drastically but also help secure sufficient food for the growing population and serve as a foreign income earner, but as a country that once thrived on agriculture and its benefits; we should know this, shouldn’t we?