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President Akufo-Addo has released the 2017/18 National Report of the Ghana Agricultural Census, the first time in some 33 years.
At the event held at Jubilee House, home of the nation’s presidency, on Monday, President Akufo-Addo noted that the importance of agriculture to Ghana’s growth and development requires that data from the sector, which inform the formulation of strategies and policies, as well as the monitoring and evaluation of these policies, must be accurate and up to date.
“In any well-governed state, both the population census and the agricultural census are conducted every ten years. In the first decades of our nationality, the agricultural census was carried out every ten years: the first in 1963, the second in 1975 and the third in 1985 ”, he said.
The President continued: “Shamefully, since then, for the past thirty-three years, no such census has been conducted. Politics, before he took office, had been based largely on guesswork. It is not surprising that this period has witnessed the systematic decline of our agriculture. We cannot afford such negligence again. “
President Akufo-Addo recalled how, on Friday June 8, 2018, in Sefwi Wiawso, as part of his working visit to the Western Region, he launched the Ghana Agricultural Census, the first time in 33 years that such a census was going to be realized.
The purpose of the census is to help provide a basis for monitoring the progress of government interventions, to provide information on the transformation of the sector, and most importantly, to ensure the integration of the agriculture, industrial and service sectors.
recommendations
The findings revealed by the Report show that there are 2,585,531 agricultural households in the country, with a population of 11,340,947, with women representing 50.5% of the population and men 49.5%.
Agricultural activity in the country, according to the Report, continues to be predominantly rural (75.2%) and rudimentary, with little innovation and modernization. The use of modern tools and equipment, such as tractors, hullers, mechanical cultivators, hatcheries / incubators, meat processing equipment and milking equipment is negligible; tractors are the most widely used equipment, but the least owned; most of the holders do not use fertilizers; the use of pesticides is very frequent among owners; and the cultivation of crops is predominantly dependent on rain.
Additionally, the Report indicated that the sector continues to be hostile to special interest groups, including people with difficulties in carrying out activities and women; the level of education of farmers is low; and the sector, to a great extent, is characterized by the consumption of its own products;
Most parcels of land used for growing crops are less than 2 acres, and young people generally find agribusiness unattractive.
“From these results, it is clear that agriculture continues to be the anchor of the country’s economy. The data also points to the fact that production methods are not modern and income levels of farmers and fishermen remain low, making the sector unattractive to young people as a viable livelihood, “he said.
For this reason, in the last three years and ten months, through the Sowing for Food and Employment program, the President highlighted that “we have begun to change the narrative by modernizing agriculture, improving productive efficiency, achieving food security and guaranteeing cost effectiveness. for our farmers, all aimed at significantly increasing agricultural productivity. “
President Akufo-Addo told the meeting that the Government, through the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, is pursuing a value-added strategy, aimed at rapidly accelerating agricultural processing and developing new and stable markets for our products.
“PFJ has not only substantially increased the production of corn, rice, soybeans and sorghum, and has transformed our nation into a net food exporter, but has also created some two million direct and indirect jobs,” he added.