An Economist and Director of the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) at the University of Ghana, Prof. Peter Quartey has partly attributed the impressive performance of the agriculture sector in the third quarter to two major policy interventions rolled out by the government; the One District One Factory (1D1F) and the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ).
Speaking in an interview with the Vaultz News, Prof. Quartey noted that the Agriculture sector remains resilient despite the deleterious effect of the COVID-19 on the economy because unlike other products, there is a constant demand for agricultural products especially food.
“For agriculture, whether COVID or no COVID, people will demand. The demand for agricultural products will not go down as much as other things. If you look at the necessities; it is food, shelter, and clothing. It’s food first; so you realize, as for agriculture, the demand for food is always high whether we are in a lockdown or not, demand doesn’t shrink- people will eat, so that should be noted.
“And also, during the lockdown and other things, we limited importation of food and other commodities, spending more on locally produced goods. So that gave farmers the confidence that there is a ready demand for food”.
According to him, the country has reduced the importation of certain commodities that used to be imported due to increased local production, driven mainly by the PFJ initiative. He stated that through the PFJ initiative farmers have received support in the form of fertilizers that enhanced their production capacities which ensured a constant supply of food amid the pandemic even when other sectors have been extremely affected.
He added that patronage of locally produced goods have increased due to increase awareness of the need to consume made-in-Ghana goods within the domestic economy.
“To some extent. Rice, for instance, we used to import a lot of rice but because of the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ), we saw an increased production locally; and even to some extent, IDIF, because some of the agriculture products are now being processed. For instance, there is a company that processes potatoes into bread, chips, and other things. Plantain, for instance, is been processed into plantain chips and packaged nicely and so forth. One can credit PFJ and 1D1F”.
The agriculture sector has often been tagged as the backbone of Ghana’s economy, but its contribution to GDP has been low compared to industry and services. Prof. Quartey believes that to harness the full potentials of the agriculture sector, frantic efforts should be made to shift the attention from just giving fertilizer to small scale farmers as has often been the case to creating an enabling environment for large scale production.
“I think we should focus on large scale commercial farming… target the big commercial farmers and support them to pull the small production chains along. For instance, if you go to Nsawam enclaves in the Eastern region, Blueskies is promoting the production and processing of pineapple and mango and others.
“So we need more of such companies to be supported. If you support them, then the small, small ones will also grow around them, but if you should focus all attention on the small ones, the two-acre, three-acre farmers, yes, that is good but you should also look at the large scale farmers who will drive commercial production, create employment and add more value (processing). So I think we should target more of these large scale farmers”.
The ISSER Boss did not hesitate to take a stance on whether the government should go back into the state farming programs that were practiced some time ago as he described any such attempt as a recipe for disaster.
“I don’t encourage the state to engage in direct production. It’s a recipe for disaster”. The state should provide an enabling environment. The state can help them [farmers] with large acreage lands and facilitate access to roads and access to credit. So, the state should provide the enabling environment. If the state should engage in direct production, that will be a recipe for disaster”.
The Agriculture sector remains the only sector that has recorded an expansion in the last two quarters of the year. In the second quarter, the sector expanded by 2.5% and then recorded a year-on-year growth rate of 8.3 % in Q3 2020 contrary to the Industry and Services sectors which contracted 5.1% and 1.1% respectively. The sector’s contribution to output has also increased from 19.1% in Q2 to 23.3% in Q3 2020.
