The General Agricultural Workers Union (GAWU) of Trade Union Congress (TUC) has called on the government to establish modern processing plants and factories to process agricultural products for local and international markets.
Mr Edward T. Kareweh, GAWU General Secretary made this assertion in an interview in Tema that such a major move would help solve post-harvest losses which is a challenge to farmers.
“One of the things with agriculture is that the products are bulky and perishable so you need to process it to expand its lifespan, if you take tomatoes, you know that the raw tomatoes cannot stay for long unless you are able to can it.”.
Mr Edward T. Kareweh
Mr Kareweh explained that processing perishable foods preserve it to be safe to be eaten beyond the harvest season and also create more employment for the youth to boost the country’s Gross Domestic Product.
He added that it was also a sure way of boosting the agricultural industry to match the increasing demand for both local consumption and exportation as well as preserving food for the citizens during unforeseen circumstances.
The GAWU Secretary said the lack of processing companies is hindering the growth of the agricultural sector as most of the farm products end up getting spoiled.
“When you don’t have processing plant you realize that we don’t produce enough but when you do, you realize that the capacity of those processing plants in a day to a month, you may be struggling to even have enough of the foodstuffs to feed the industry. It’s just like when you cook food and you don’t have a freezer to store it, how much can you eat.”
Mr. Edward T. Kareweh
Agric sector to boom if gov’t heed to Agri-stakeholders’ advice
Many stakeholders have urged the government to address the challenges in the agriculture sector.
In a recent interview, ActionAid urged government to increase food production by addressing challenges smallholder farmers face as they produce chunk of the agricultural commodities in the country.
The war in Ukraine is seriously disrupting the food supply chain. African countries are major trading partners with Russia and Ukraine for supplies of wheat, edible oil and fertilizer. Half of the grains distributed by the World Food Programme (WFP) through its food support programmes come from Ukraine and Russia
“We urge the Government of Ghana to scale-up support to smallholder farmers, especially women smallholders and sustainable agroecological approaches to farming to enable farmers improve soil fertility for crop production, without the use of expensive fossil-fuel chemical fertilizers.”
ActionAid
The Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II in a recent interview urged the government to promote and strengthen the use of organic fertilizer among Ghanaian farmers’, as this will help the farmers, especially the peasant farmers, to produce to feed the nation.
Otumfuo Osei Tutu II disclosed that chemical fertilizer is increasingly becoming inaccessible to farmers and expensive to purchase. Otumfuo made the request while addressing the Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana (PFAG) during their annual meeting held in Kumasi.
“Smallholder farmers in the country played a significant role during the coronavirus pandemic and global geopolitics, putting a strain on all economies worldwide. It is, therefore, important for the government to support farmers to get used to organic fertilizers as they cannot continue to rely on chemical fertilizers amid difficulties in accessing them.”
Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II
Many experts and agri-stakeholders are of the view that the agriculture sector will boom if the government should heed to all the advises and suggestion given to the government.
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