Daily Heritage June 23:17

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DAILY HERITAGE FRIDAY, JUNE 23, 2017
Making poultry farming attractive to the youth
A COUNTRY that aspires to attain
a competitive and decent per capita
income having crawled from 320
USD in 1983 to 775 USD in 2014, a
major sector worth prioritising to
turn the tide is Agriculture.
Agriculture remains the backbone
of every economy and Ghana is no
exception. The country is well-endowed
with natural resources, with
agriculture accounting for nearly
one-quarter of GDP and serving as
employment avenue for thousands
of Ghanaians.
With a graduate unemployment
rate of over 220,000, one key area
that can be made very attractive to
absolve the teeming youth is poultry
farming.
Currently, the few youth who are
into poultry farming are making significant
gains in spite of the many
challenges confronting the industry.
Some of the farms are able to
produce 2,000 crates of eggs per day
and have in stock some 20,000 birds.
As we hope to meet 90% of our
poultry needs, efforts ought to be
made to ensure that the many challenges
confronting the poultry
farmer are tackled.
For instance, access to credit remains
a big problem to the farmers.
This is because many of the banks
and other financial institutions perceive
poultry farming as a high-risk
business, hence the dragging of feet
to give loans. With the recent Bird
Flu scare and increasing cost of
poultry feed, the case of the poultry
farmer has become even more difficult.
Another challenge that the government
must look at urgently is the
huge import of cheap poultry and
poultry products. Though we have
signed on to trade policies that open
up the economy, the government
could assist the local poultry producer
to be more competitive
through various tax regimes to protect
the local farmer.
Advanced economies such as
Germany employed this technique in
the automobile industry until the
local producers were strong enough
to compete with foreign imports.
The DAILY HERITAGE
urges the government to provide
more resources to all Agricultural Investment
Funds to support the
youth to go into poultry and other
farming activities.
Cocoa farmers threaten demo
BY BENJAMIN TANDOH
AGROUP calling itself Youth
in Cocoa Production has
threatened to embark on a
massive demonstration to express
its grievance over what
it describe as “cheating” by
the government in the sale of fertiliser to
cocoa farmers.
According to them, they have been deceived
by the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-
Addo-led government and argued that the
government had no interest in protecting
cocoa farmers in the country.
The government has indicated that it will
replace the free fertilisation programme
which was introduced by the erstwhile government
with a programme under which
farmers pay GH¢80.00 for a bag of fertiliser.
The initiative, according to the government,
is meant to halt or bring to an end the
smuggling of subsidised fertilizers to neighbouring
countries.
Speaking on Kasapa FM’s‘Si Mi So’ hosted
by Akwasi Nsiah, the chairman of the
group, Ishmael Kwabena Asare, said the
government was trying to discourage the
youth from farming by introducing the initiative.
“We supported the government’s fight
against illegal farmers and we even advised
our peers to join us in cocoa farming. By
this initiative we are not sure they will be encouraged
to join.
“If the economy is bad, why won’t they
[government] reduce the salaries of teachers,
• Over sale of fertiliser by Govt
soldiers, and nurses but to
use this dubious
means to milk
money from us,”
he stated.
Mr Asare
bemoaned
the absence
of an organised
body to
fight for
cocoa farmers,
arguing
that, “no one
knows the hardship
we go through as young
farmers.”
Minority blasts Govt
The minority caucus in Parliament accused
the government of cheating cocoa
farmers by asking them to buy fertilisers
which have already been paid for by the previous
National Democratic Congress NDC
government.
According to them, the Mahama administration,
prior to the determination of the
producer price of cocoa, made provision for
the purchase of 2.2 million bags of granular
fertiliser and 1.6 million litres of liquid fertiliser
to fertilise over 1 million hectares of
cocoa farms free of charge to the farmer in
the 2016/2017 cocoa season.
Addressing journalists at a news conference
in Accra, the Ranking Member
on Food, Agriculture and Cocoa
Affairs, Mr Eric Opoku, said
it baffled their imagination
why the government will
turn around to sell the
already paid-for fertilisers
to the cocoa
farmer.
This the Minority
NDC, considers a slap
in the face of the
cocoa farmers.
“We want to emphasise
that cocoa farmers
have indirectly, through the
producer price determination formulae
used for the 2016/17 cocoa season,
paid for the fertiliser. Selling the same
fertiliser to the same farmer is a broad day
robbery.
“We are therefore urging the New Patriotic
Party government to be sensitive to the
plight of the Ghanaian cocoa farmer by
halting the sale of the fertiliser and reverting
to the NDC’s free fertilisation programme
for the 2016/17 cocoa season,” noted Mr
Opoku.
COCOBOD responds
The Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD)
accused the NDC Minority in Parliament of
being economical with the truth, over the
purchase of 2.2 million bags of granular fertiliser
and 1.6 million litres of liquid for
cocoa farmers by the Mahama led-government.
According to COCOBOD, though the
previous administration factored the purchase
of fertilisers, it spent a whopping
GH¢ 750 million on the construction of
cocoa roads when it had budgeted for only
GH¢ 150 million, a situation that has resulted
in debt with no provision made to
settle it.
According to them, the Mahama administration,
prior to the determination of the
producer price of cocoa made provision for
the purchase of 2.2 million bags of granular
fertiliser and 1.6 million litres of liquid fertiliser
to fertilise over 1 million hectares of
cocoa farms free of charge to the farmer in
the 2016/2017 cocoa season.
Speaking on Kasapa News, a representative
from the COCOBOD explained that his
outfit’s decision to sell fertilisers to farmers
at reduced price is partly to enable it to offset
debt accrued by the previous administration.
He noted that this initiative is meant to
bring to an end the smuggling of subsidised
fertilisers to neighbouring West African
countries, including Ivory Coast and Cameroun.
“Now, the Licensed Buying Companies
sell the fertilisers and they’ll later come back
and render accounts to COCOBOD as to
whom they sold the fertilisers to.”
“This is a clear departure from the earlier
way of doing things. By this measure, fertilisers
will no longer get into the hands of
constituency chairmen and also be smuggled
to other countries as has been the case in
the past years,” he said.
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