The Planting for Food and Jobs strategy has received praise from President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, who attributes it to Ghana’s abundant food supply.
He states emphatically that despite significant economic difficulties, Ghana has reportedly avoided food shortages that other West African nations.
The President believes that successful programs, such as the Planting for Food and Jobs project, have been crucial in ensuring that the nation produces enough food. He commended the good management of the Agricultural sector by the government, while he was speaking at the 7th African Leadership Forum in Accra.
Nevertheless, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo issued a warning, that continuing to subsidize agriculture could not be financially viable in the long run.
“There is a whole programme we call Planting for Food and Jobs, where we subsidize our smallholder farmers. It has yielded some results, and we have seen that even in these difficult times economically, the availability of foodstuff on the market has not been an issue. It isn’t as if in this period of difficulty we have also witnessed a shortage of food.
“On the contrary, access to food has been the more robust response that our economy has had and it is so because the system we have put in place has been relatively successful but clearly there is a limit to how far we can go down that road of public subsidy for agriculture.”
Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo
It Is Time For African Nations To Trade Amongst Themselves
According to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, African nations should unite to trade among themselves because there is strength in numbers.
As stated by Akufo-Addo, intra-African trade is one of the lowest of any area in the world, with Africa currently making up only 3% of global trade.
This, according to him, is a result of the colonial economic system, which he described as being characterized by small individual economies and disjointed regional markets.
Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo made this comment on Thursday, May 25, while speaking at the 7th African Leadership Forum’s opening ceremony in Accra.
He said that no country can afford to do it alone in Africa and as such, he laid emphasis on the fact that Africa cannot allow its collective faith to be decided by exogenous shocks thousands and thousands of miles away.
“The time is long overdue for Africa and Africans to define our own narrative, it must be defined by what see in ourselves and not what they choose to say about us. However, this cannot happen if we do not trade among ourselves. Africa accounts for only 3 percent of global trade and intra-African trade is one of the lowest of any region globally.
“This is largely due to the colonial economic module characterized by small individual economies, fragmented and disconnected regional markets, overreliance on the production export of primary commodities and the presence of low productive capacities which have been in existence for the last century. As the adage goes, there is strength in unity, and for all 54-member states of the African Union, our strength is in our numbers.”
Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo
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