By Ama Amankwah Baafi
Smallholder farmers have prevailed on the government to live up to its promise to increase subsidies on retail prices of fertilisers, seeds and other agrochemicals.
Subsequently, they proposed that subsidy, particularly on the fertiliser component, should be pegged at 50 per cent less than the current price to help enable farmers who do not often use the product to do so to increase their yield.
The Programme Officer of the Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana (PFAG), Mr Charles Nyaaba, in an interview with the Daily Graphic in Accra further urged the government to consider the proposal of the farmers before the farming season began between April and June, this year.
He explained that a 50 per cent subsidy will help accomplish the rationale behind the Fertiliser Subsidy Programme (FSP), which is meant to encourage farmers, particularly smallholder farmers, to increase the application of fertiliser on their farms.
When the Fertiliser Subsidy Programme (FSP) was introduced in 2008, there was a 50 per cent subsidy component which declined to 21 per cent in 2015, representing a reduction of about 58 per cent.
Mr Nyaaba noted that access to fertiliser at the right time at the beginning of the farming season was critical to guarantee good yield.
“In terms of fertiliser subsidy, it is something they can do immediately because the FSP is announced in March / April. Last year for instance market price for 15x15kg of fertiliser was between GH₵105 and GH₵110. This dropped to GH₵89 after the subsidy was introduced so the subsidy component is less than 20 per cent, making the price high,” he said.
Concern of farmers
Farmers have often complained that the upward price changes of fertiliser affected the amount of fertiliser they could afford to used on the farm.
Experts have said that fertiliser was a key determinant of high crop yields, adding that as part of efforts to ensure that the country became food secure, farmers’ access to fertilisers should be of interest to all.
New government’s vision
The government, per its pledges, seeks to modernise agriculture, improve production efficiency, achieve food security and profitability for farmers to significantly increase agricultural productivity in the next four years.
Recommendation
The PFAG has urged the government to introduce measures, including effective monitoring, to prevent price variations in subsidised fertiliser across the country.
Indeed, it had on several platforms called for certain taxes to be dedicated to improving agricultural productivity, particularly the FSP.
Quick Read
Since the inception of the FSP, initiated in 2008 to help farmers increase their use of fertiliser, an amount of GH¢345 million has been invested out of which a total of 724,000 metric tonnes (MT) of fertiliser were distributed to farmers nationwide.
Wednesday, February 15, 2017
Govt to study MCC support
By Ama Amankwah Baafi
THE government has sounded its intention to review the US$500 million Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) support for the country’s energy sector.
The Senior Minister-designate, Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo, who dropped the hint when he took his turn at the vetting of minister nominees of President Akufo-Addo, alleged that there were issues with the agreement that needed to be reconsidered.
For instance, Mr Osafo-Maafo said, the aspect compelling the government to find money to pay off the total debt of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) before releasing it to a concessionaire was not the best for the country.
“Now if we pay the total debt of ECG and we find Ghanaians with good management skills to run it, won’t that be a better option?” he quizzed.
Agreement
The compact which was signed in August 2014 focuses on introducing independent power producers and private distributors into the electricity supply chain as well as allowing private sector participation into ECG.
The government signed the second MCC Compact named: “Ghana Power Compact” as part of measures to improve the power sector in the country.
Labour
The Public Utility Workers Union (PUWU) and the Public Services Workers Union (PSWU) of the Ghana Trades Union Congress (TUC) have raised concerns about the deal which they claim is not in the best interest of the country.
In a position paper, they suggested that the government and the MCC should adopt a phase approach for privatising ECG.
They have often argued that there should be room for reform interventions initiated by ECG itself to become fully operational and assess their impact on the company’s efficiency and profitability.
The unions maintained that the proposed approach under the compact II to solve the challenges facing the power sector did inure to the country’s interest.
To them a wrong diagnosis of a problem will bring about wrong prescription which will not solve the problem.
Last-minute appointments
Mr Osafo-Maafo alleged that the previous government carried out new appointments and awarded some contracts contrary to agreed rules towards ensuring a smooth transition.
He said the government would consider the various circumstances such as whether the vacancies were advertised by law and how the process evolved to warrant appointments.-GB
Key Note
The MCC support, which is said to be the largest US government-funded transaction under President Obama’s Power Africa initiative, intends to invest up to US$500 million to support the transformation of Ghana’s electricity sector and stimulate private investment.
THE government has sounded its intention to review the US$500 million Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) support for the country’s energy sector.
The Senior Minister-designate, Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo, who dropped the hint when he took his turn at the vetting of minister nominees of President Akufo-Addo, alleged that there were issues with the agreement that needed to be reconsidered.
For instance, Mr Osafo-Maafo said, the aspect compelling the government to find money to pay off the total debt of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) before releasing it to a concessionaire was not the best for the country.
“Now if we pay the total debt of ECG and we find Ghanaians with good management skills to run it, won’t that be a better option?” he quizzed.
Agreement
The compact which was signed in August 2014 focuses on introducing independent power producers and private distributors into the electricity supply chain as well as allowing private sector participation into ECG.
The government signed the second MCC Compact named: “Ghana Power Compact” as part of measures to improve the power sector in the country.
Labour
The Public Utility Workers Union (PUWU) and the Public Services Workers Union (PSWU) of the Ghana Trades Union Congress (TUC) have raised concerns about the deal which they claim is not in the best interest of the country.
In a position paper, they suggested that the government and the MCC should adopt a phase approach for privatising ECG.
They have often argued that there should be room for reform interventions initiated by ECG itself to become fully operational and assess their impact on the company’s efficiency and profitability.
The unions maintained that the proposed approach under the compact II to solve the challenges facing the power sector did inure to the country’s interest.
To them a wrong diagnosis of a problem will bring about wrong prescription which will not solve the problem.
Last-minute appointments
Mr Osafo-Maafo alleged that the previous government carried out new appointments and awarded some contracts contrary to agreed rules towards ensuring a smooth transition.
He said the government would consider the various circumstances such as whether the vacancies were advertised by law and how the process evolved to warrant appointments.-GB
Key Note
The MCC support, which is said to be the largest US government-funded transaction under President Obama’s Power Africa initiative, intends to invest up to US$500 million to support the transformation of Ghana’s electricity sector and stimulate private investment.
GAWU pushes for inclusion at policy making level
The General Agricultural Workers Union (GAWU) has reiterated the need to include targeted beneficiaries of agricultural programmes at the development and implementation stages of such programmes.
The union stated that it was wrong for policy makers to make and implement policies without consulting targeted beneficiaries.
The General Secretary of GAWU, Mr Edward Kareweh, said such actions did not help to realise the desired impact of policies and had often resulted in the decrease in food production and increased cost of food prices, therefore, it was important to include targeted beneficiaries at any attempt to draw a policy of any kind.
“There may be some level of consultation but it is better to involve those who are going to benefit from the policy development and even if they have not been part of it, when it comes to implementation there are also implementation stakeholders who may be different from those who actually made the policy,” he said.
According to him, such stakeholder implementers must then have to understand the psychology, rationale and the objective behind the entire policy to appreciate it and the roles that each of them has to play.
However, he said policy-makers appeared impatient during the implementation to either get all stakeholders on board or tolerate their views.
Challenges to look at
Mr Kareweh said the agricultural sector was huge and diverse by its features, such that its challenges were not uniformed and so needed to be broken down to the sub-sectors to see the core challenges of each sector and address it.
“The policies we are hearing are the broad policies of the sector but each sub-sector and the details in it aren’t coming out clearly. It appears although that you provide the challenges and the solutions which are broad but when it comes to the details and the implementation then it is because probably no serious account was taken in respect to the detail and implementation” he said.
He cited that one of the major weaknesses of the country’s development exercise had to do with implementation at two levels; implementation to the letter and implementation to the specification of what was stated it will be done.
Implementation, he said involves broader stakeholders than just the policy development.
“So you find the policy makers they make the policy but when it comes to the implementation they are not the people who are either going to do it or they are not going to do it alone and it involves a number of stakeholders who have not been brought on board to understand the policy and then to make their necessary contribution to the implementation process. So implementation then eventually arrives at a shortfall,” he said.
‘One district., One factory’
He said that although the concept was good there were unanswered questions about the size because it should be able to take what is produced in the districts to make a lot of impact.
“Probably the concept is to address the perennial complaint that farmers produce and there is no market and the produce get rotten, so if you have a factory which is just close to you the overall effect is that once the factory takes all your produce then the post-harvest loses would be reduced,” he said.
New technology to help make houses affordable
Do you know that you can be part of an innovative construction project by not throwing away your plastic bottle after a refreshing cool drink?
There is an effective way of reusing the bottles; you can build with them.
In a country where people do not have so much to spend on building materials, promoters of plastic bottles for building say that such houses made from plastic are estimated to cost just about one-third of a ‘normal’ house built with concrete and bricks.
The Founder of Toahouse Company Limited, Mr Paul Coffie Bebobru, told the Daily Graphic in an interview that using plastic bottles to construct a house was as strong as a brick house and could help individuals save money.
“As a country, we are grappling with the problem of solid waste, especially safe disposal of plastic waste. Building houses with plastic bottles is an innovation targeted at providing affordable houses and also contributing to a clean environment, “he said.
Toahouse…The green impact
Mr Bebobru said he established the company out of curiosity and research about improved sanitation.
“Realising the difficulty in getting employment after school, I thought through to come out with something. I also acquired much of the plastic housing technique in Kenya and when I returned, I got few people to buy into the idea,” he said.
Among the projects Toahouse is undertaking currently include a warehouse for Booomers International Limited (makers of bamboo bicycles) at Jamasi in the Ashanti Region, and an innovation hub for the West Africa Senior High School.
Challenges
Mr Bebobru said the journey so far had not been easy with their major challenge being perception.
“We need much talking to get people to accept the idea and once the attitude is changed we will get there. A lot more people are getting curious about the different ways of building, especially looking at the cost factor,” he said.
He said the company was also training artisans in the technology and would be deployed to other regions to do a trainer of trainers.
Subsequently, Toahouse is expecting investors to come on board. It has launched a campaign dubbed
“10,000 bottle challenge” to raise 10,000 bottles with some giveaways.
“We hope it would provide another stream of income to individuals and also get our streets clean,” he said.
Construction process
The disposable plastic bottles, ideally, should be of uniform sizes, and filled with sieved sand to make it fine and compact, and the bottles sealed with the corks.
They are then laid as bricks and then stringed diagonally to get a firm holding.
The gaps in between the bottles are then filled with mortar. The foundation is left for a few hours so that the cement will solidify. Building can start after the foundation after all pillars have been made.
Features of a plastic bottle house
Experts say plastic bottle, as a construction material, is cost-effective, not brittle and easy to use
It is estimated that a plastic bottle can take approximately 300 years to decompose.
A small house can use as many as 10,000 bottles, waste, that would otherwise have been deposited in a landfill or scattered.
The construction process is work intensive and this means it would create opportunities for employment in developing countries such as Ghana; from the collection stage, to filling and building.
Attempts to curb plastic waste
So far, no metropolitan, municipal and district assembly in Ghana has been able to deal with the menace of plastic waste.
There have been attempts to ban manufacturing, impose taxes and ban use of plastics in the absence of nationally instituted waste management programme.
In recent times, some individuals and organisations have tried to earn money by gathering used plastic bottles to recycle or use them for other products.
Pull Quote
As a country, we are grappling with the problem of solid waste, especially safe disposal of plastic waste. Building houses with plastic bottles is an innovation targeted at providing affordable houses and also contributes to a clean environment.
Quick Read
Promoters of plastic bottles for building say that such houses are estimated to cost just about one-third of a ‘normal’ house built with concrete and bricks.
25 Banks flout law
Only five banks out the 30 have transferred their records to the Public Records and Archives Administration (PRAAD) as required by the law. They are namely, Ecobank Ghana, Standard Chartered Bank Limited, Stanbic Bank, Bank of Africa and the Universal Merchant Bank.
A source at the PRAAD told the GRAPHIC BUSINESS in Accra, that the level of compliance by the various financial institutions in the country to transfer their records to the PRAAD for further retention was low.
Per the Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2008, Act 749, the banks are required to send their records to the PRAAD six years after the date on which a business relationship is terminated or the date after a transaction is concluded.
“If the financial institutions are complying with their own law and we are generating revenue, we will get to where we should be. PRAAD is sitting on gold,” the source said.
The Act states that the National Records Centre under the PRAAD shall maintain a register of account table institutions.
It also states that an accountable institution that establishes a business relationship with a person shall keep records of, (a) the identity of the person or the agent of the person; (b) transaction made through the accountable institution, and (c) suspicious transaction reports made to the Centre.
It adds that, “(2) For the purposes of this Act, records may be kept on a computer system or an electronic device capable of being used to store information. (3) This section applies to each single transaction with an accountable institution.”
Limited capacity
However, due to limited space, the PRAAD is cautious in enforcing its mandate.
“The challenge is that we don’t have the storage facilities so now if they decide to bring their records, what at are we going to do? How are we going to keep them? Do we have the facilities?” the source asked.
He said there were numerous traditional banks coupled with the micro financial intuitions and other non-banking institutions, and so if all of them were to bring their records at the same time, it would be a problem.
“Twenty years after setting up the department and looking at the volume of documents here, there will be the need to expand. Government should help us expand because we are the custodians of the collective memory of Ghana,” the source said.
Functions of PRAAD
The PRAAD was established under the PRAAD Instrument, 1996 (L.I. 1628) to be responsible for the proper and effective management of records in public institutions of government to which the Act applies.
The department’s role includes ensuring that public offices, institutions and individuals who create and maintain public records follow good record keeping practices; and establishing and implementing procedures for the timely disposal of public records of continuing value.
Importance of a records centre
A records centre provides safe and environmentally controlled security for inactive records for as long as their retention is required.
Processes are put in place to ensure that when a record is needed, it can be easily located, retrieved, used and then safely returned to storage.
However, when a record's retention is no longer required, correct disposition procedures are followed.
Poor knowledge of Labour Act causes disputes
The National Labour Commission (NLC) has blamed the increasing number of
industrial disputes on the limited knowledge of most employees on the
provisions of the Labour Act, Act 6511, 2003.
Should employees and employers fully abreast themselves with the requirements of the Act, the Executive Secretary of the commission, Mr Charles Adongo Bawaduah, said industrial dispute would have been minimised and the NLC sparred of some cases.
He said the Act was relatively new compared to other legislations and many also thought that the provisions of the Industrial Relations Act 299 could still be applied.
“We need to do more education and I foresee that the NLC can embark on some education but predominantly, the unions must also take it up and educate their members to appreciate the provisions of the Labour Act,” he said in an interview.
The NLC received a total of 664 complaints last year. Out of the figure, 178 were settled, with 486 of them currently at various levels of settlement at the NLC.
Complaints that go before the commission involve disputes related to dismissals, termination of appointments, retirement benefits/end-of-service and unpaid salaries.
The rest are workmen compensation, redundancy, medical and unfair labour practices and others.
Citing strike actions, Mr Bawaduah said the law had substantially changed but some people still embarked on strike actions without due process.
“It’s either they are not aware or they just don’t care. The employers’ associations also need to carry out some public education for their members and companies. There are those who think that once I own a business, I can hire and fire but the working relationship is governed by law and so it’s important that they have thorough knowledge of the provisions of the law to be able to comply,” he said.
Number of cases
The NLC received 108 complaints of dismissals, 221 of termination, 167 unfair labour practices, 93 of unpaid salaries, 55 cases of redundancy, 13 of retirement benefits/end-of-service, and six of workmen compensation.
Also, 12 cases on mediation and strike / lockouts were received, five on intention to embark on strike and three on voluntary arbitration were handled by the NLC.
A total of 350 cases were settled by the commission in 2016 out of a rollover of 48 cases from 2015.
Enforcement of the provisions of the law
He deduced that the majority of public sector strike actions were illegal because in most cases they refused to comply with the provisions of the law relating to strike actions because either they had not given notice or even when they gave notice they continued to embark on the strike when negotiations were still ongoing,which was against the law.
“They may be an essential service such as nurses and doctors which the law prohibits from embarking on strike actions yet they go anyway. I don’t think that these persons do not know the provisions of the law; they do know. It’s just that they are of the belief that if they do it, nothing will happen to us,” he said.
Mr Bawaduah said in most cases, the government had not enforced the provisions of the law relating to strike actions.
“You can terminate the employment of such persons or withhold their salaries. If a public sector workers know that even if they go on strike they will still be paid, they will go on strike,” he said.
He said the workers in the private sector were not necessarily satisfied with their conditions of service, but they knew that the law would be applied to the letter and spirit if they embarked on illegality. The same could not be said of the public sector, so enforcement of the law should be taken seriously in the public sector organisations.
The Labour Act
The Labour Act 2003, Act 651 was developed to put together existing laws on labour to conform to the 1992 Constitution and the conventions of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to which Ghana is a signatory.
After wider consultations between the social partners, namely, the government, employers, organised labour and other stakeholders in the labour market, seventeen laws on labour were repealed, with the exception of the Workmen’s Compensation Law 1987, PNDCL 187, and the Factories, Offices and Shops Act, 1970 (Act 328), amendments to Sections 93, 95(1), and 124 of the Children’s Act, 1998 (Act 560).
The Labour Act covers all employers and employees except those in strategic positions such as the Armed Forces, Police Service, Prisons Service and the Security Intelligence Agencies.
Major provisions of the Labour Act include establishment of public and private employment centres, protection of employment relationship, general conditions of employment, employment of persons with disability, employment of young persons, employment of women, fair and unfair termination of employment, protection of remuneration, temporary and casual employees, unions, employers’ organisations and collective agreements, strikes, establishment of a National Tripartite Committee, forced labour, occupational health and safety, labour inspection and the establishment of the NLC
Should employees and employers fully abreast themselves with the requirements of the Act, the Executive Secretary of the commission, Mr Charles Adongo Bawaduah, said industrial dispute would have been minimised and the NLC sparred of some cases.
He said the Act was relatively new compared to other legislations and many also thought that the provisions of the Industrial Relations Act 299 could still be applied.
“We need to do more education and I foresee that the NLC can embark on some education but predominantly, the unions must also take it up and educate their members to appreciate the provisions of the Labour Act,” he said in an interview.
The NLC received a total of 664 complaints last year. Out of the figure, 178 were settled, with 486 of them currently at various levels of settlement at the NLC.
Complaints that go before the commission involve disputes related to dismissals, termination of appointments, retirement benefits/end-of-service and unpaid salaries.
The rest are workmen compensation, redundancy, medical and unfair labour practices and others.
Citing strike actions, Mr Bawaduah said the law had substantially changed but some people still embarked on strike actions without due process.
“It’s either they are not aware or they just don’t care. The employers’ associations also need to carry out some public education for their members and companies. There are those who think that once I own a business, I can hire and fire but the working relationship is governed by law and so it’s important that they have thorough knowledge of the provisions of the law to be able to comply,” he said.
Number of cases
The NLC received 108 complaints of dismissals, 221 of termination, 167 unfair labour practices, 93 of unpaid salaries, 55 cases of redundancy, 13 of retirement benefits/end-of-service, and six of workmen compensation.
Also, 12 cases on mediation and strike / lockouts were received, five on intention to embark on strike and three on voluntary arbitration were handled by the NLC.
A total of 350 cases were settled by the commission in 2016 out of a rollover of 48 cases from 2015.
Enforcement of the provisions of the law
He deduced that the majority of public sector strike actions were illegal because in most cases they refused to comply with the provisions of the law relating to strike actions because either they had not given notice or even when they gave notice they continued to embark on the strike when negotiations were still ongoing,which was against the law.
“They may be an essential service such as nurses and doctors which the law prohibits from embarking on strike actions yet they go anyway. I don’t think that these persons do not know the provisions of the law; they do know. It’s just that they are of the belief that if they do it, nothing will happen to us,” he said.
Mr Bawaduah said in most cases, the government had not enforced the provisions of the law relating to strike actions.
“You can terminate the employment of such persons or withhold their salaries. If a public sector workers know that even if they go on strike they will still be paid, they will go on strike,” he said.
He said the workers in the private sector were not necessarily satisfied with their conditions of service, but they knew that the law would be applied to the letter and spirit if they embarked on illegality. The same could not be said of the public sector, so enforcement of the law should be taken seriously in the public sector organisations.
The Labour Act
The Labour Act 2003, Act 651 was developed to put together existing laws on labour to conform to the 1992 Constitution and the conventions of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to which Ghana is a signatory.
After wider consultations between the social partners, namely, the government, employers, organised labour and other stakeholders in the labour market, seventeen laws on labour were repealed, with the exception of the Workmen’s Compensation Law 1987, PNDCL 187, and the Factories, Offices and Shops Act, 1970 (Act 328), amendments to Sections 93, 95(1), and 124 of the Children’s Act, 1998 (Act 560).
The Labour Act covers all employers and employees except those in strategic positions such as the Armed Forces, Police Service, Prisons Service and the Security Intelligence Agencies.
Major provisions of the Labour Act include establishment of public and private employment centres, protection of employment relationship, general conditions of employment, employment of persons with disability, employment of young persons, employment of women, fair and unfair termination of employment, protection of remuneration, temporary and casual employees, unions, employers’ organisations and collective agreements, strikes, establishment of a National Tripartite Committee, forced labour, occupational health and safety, labour inspection and the establishment of the NLC
Govt assures improved agric practices
By Ama Amankwah Baafi
The Minister designate for Food and Agriculture, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, has stated the government’s determination to bridge the huge gap between the number of agricultural extension officers (AEO) in the country and the number of farmers who need their services.
He has assured that for the first year, 1,000 extension officers would be engaged under the government’s “Planting for Food and Jobs” initiative to improve farmer-extension officer ratio to provide technical advice to farmers.
When he appeared before the vetting committee of parliament, Dr Akoto cited statistics to show that the linkage between science and agriculture was gradually being weakened.
He said although 4,400 extension officers were supposed to be on the list at the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA), the current list had only about 2,600 and it was significant to note that in the next three years, 80 per cent of them would retire, whereas no plans had been made to hire officers in the last three years. \
“From 2011-2015, the five agric colleges have produced over 3,200 graduate technical officers who are supposed to be helping our farmers to link science and technology in the fields but have not been hired and it indicates that the links between the farmer and science is being broken,” he said.
Dr Akoto said the rest of the graduates would, however, be absorbed in the subsequent years to strengthen the link between technology and farming.
Extension services
Agricultural extension service can be the government agency or ministry responsible for promoting the adoption and utilisation of new scientific farming practices through educational procedures.
Although the United Nations (UN) prescribes that one extension officer should take care of 500 farmers, the issue of extension service was still a challenge to most farmers in Ghana.
Statistics from the MOFA show a ratio of one AEO assigned to about 1,500 farmers, a situation that makes it difficult for smallholder farmers who need their services most to access extension services.
An extension worker helps farmers to increase the productivity of their farms and improve their living standards.
He or she serves as an advisor, a technician and a middleman operating between agricultural research institutions and the farming communities.
Experts have said that the absence of ES made it difficult for MOFA itself to execute its own programmes as it tried to modernise the agriculture sector by coming out with new products, equipment and programmes.
Studies by the Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana (PFAG) have shown that some farmers do not see the need to use improved seeds because they think it will require using more fertiliser and the produce may go bad early.
Indeed, if farmers are not able to get the right information, they won’t apply appropriate methods of farming so at the end they will still be getting lower yields which will end up impacting the total contribution of the agriculture sector.
Planting for food and jobs
Meanwhile, Dr Akoto has announced that a national campaign to encourage all citizens to go into farming would soon be launched.
For the first year it will focus on the maize, rice, soya bean, sorghum and vegetable production.GB
Pull Quote
From 2011-2015 the five agric colleges have produced over 3,200 graduate technical officers who are supposed to be helping our farmers to link science and technology in the fields but have not been hired and it indicates that the links between the farmer and science is being broken.
Key note
For Ghana’s agriculture to improve, farmers have no alternative than to respond positively to new ideas, learn and adopt recommended scientific farming techniques.
The Minister designate for Food and Agriculture, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, has stated the government’s determination to bridge the huge gap between the number of agricultural extension officers (AEO) in the country and the number of farmers who need their services.
He has assured that for the first year, 1,000 extension officers would be engaged under the government’s “Planting for Food and Jobs” initiative to improve farmer-extension officer ratio to provide technical advice to farmers.
When he appeared before the vetting committee of parliament, Dr Akoto cited statistics to show that the linkage between science and agriculture was gradually being weakened.
He said although 4,400 extension officers were supposed to be on the list at the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA), the current list had only about 2,600 and it was significant to note that in the next three years, 80 per cent of them would retire, whereas no plans had been made to hire officers in the last three years. \
“From 2011-2015, the five agric colleges have produced over 3,200 graduate technical officers who are supposed to be helping our farmers to link science and technology in the fields but have not been hired and it indicates that the links between the farmer and science is being broken,” he said.
Dr Akoto said the rest of the graduates would, however, be absorbed in the subsequent years to strengthen the link between technology and farming.
Extension services
Agricultural extension service can be the government agency or ministry responsible for promoting the adoption and utilisation of new scientific farming practices through educational procedures.
Although the United Nations (UN) prescribes that one extension officer should take care of 500 farmers, the issue of extension service was still a challenge to most farmers in Ghana.
Statistics from the MOFA show a ratio of one AEO assigned to about 1,500 farmers, a situation that makes it difficult for smallholder farmers who need their services most to access extension services.
An extension worker helps farmers to increase the productivity of their farms and improve their living standards.
He or she serves as an advisor, a technician and a middleman operating between agricultural research institutions and the farming communities.
Experts have said that the absence of ES made it difficult for MOFA itself to execute its own programmes as it tried to modernise the agriculture sector by coming out with new products, equipment and programmes.
Studies by the Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana (PFAG) have shown that some farmers do not see the need to use improved seeds because they think it will require using more fertiliser and the produce may go bad early.
Indeed, if farmers are not able to get the right information, they won’t apply appropriate methods of farming so at the end they will still be getting lower yields which will end up impacting the total contribution of the agriculture sector.
Planting for food and jobs
Meanwhile, Dr Akoto has announced that a national campaign to encourage all citizens to go into farming would soon be launched.
For the first year it will focus on the maize, rice, soya bean, sorghum and vegetable production.GB
Pull Quote
From 2011-2015 the five agric colleges have produced over 3,200 graduate technical officers who are supposed to be helping our farmers to link science and technology in the fields but have not been hired and it indicates that the links between the farmer and science is being broken.
Key note
For Ghana’s agriculture to improve, farmers have no alternative than to respond positively to new ideas, learn and adopt recommended scientific farming techniques.
Allocate 10% of annual budget to agric sector’
Policy makers have been asked to allocate not less than 10 per cent of
the government’s annual budget to the agriculture sector. Such a move,
they believe, would help increase production in the agric sector by at
least by six per cent annually.
Proponents have said that the 10 per cent, which is one of the tenets of the Maputo Declaration, 2003, should be met from the onset and any other input based on availability of resources.
The General Secretary of the General Agricultural Workers’ Union (GAWU) of the Ghana Trades Union Congress (TUC), Mr Edward Kareweh, in an interview with the GRAPHIC BUSINESS in Accra, on their expectations of an improved agriculture sector, said unless such a far-reaching tenet was upheld to transform agriculture, it would remain largely same.
Agric budget
Mr Kareweh deduced that since the 2017 budget had already been determined, the government could come out with a supplementary budget to realign current budget to meet their developmental goal.
“What they can do is to make adequate budgetary allocation for the various areas of expenditure. For agriculture in particular, if you look at the broad budget figure, it could sometimes give wrong meaning in the sense that you have to know how much is going into real investment, capacity building and some other services which are not directly bring about increase in output,” he said.
He said the portion of the agriculture budget allocated for real investment had to be looked at critically because they are rather used for personnel emoluments, consultancy fees among others.
“If you take a chunk of the budget, then it may be broad but if you look at what actually goes to real investment within the sector, then it becomes too small and we don’t get the effect that we have wanted,” he said.
Sector growth
Official statistics show that the agricultural sector employed almost 56 per cent of the total population.
In the 2016 budget, allocation to the sector declined from GH¢395.19 million in 2015 to GH¢355.14 million, representing a decrease of about 10 per cent (GH¢40 million).
The sector contributed 22.4 per cent to GDP in 2013 but declined to 21.5 per cent in 2014. Again in 2010, the sector contributed 29.9 per cent to GDP; declined to 25.6 per cent in 2011 and further to 22.7 per cent in 2012.
However, growth in 2015 was 0.04 per cent. Also in the 2015 budget statement, the agriculture sector showed signs of recovery, growing from 2.3 per cent in 2012 to 5.2 per cent in 2013 and then to 5.3 per cent in 2014.
The growth was on account of the forestry and logging sub-sectors in which growth rebounded from a negative 0.04 per cent in 2013 to a 16.5 per cent in 2014. The Fisheries sub-sector also maintained its recent positive growth path, growing by 7.1 per cent in 2014 up from 5.8 per cent in 2013.
The crops sub-sector, however, experienced a decline, growing at 3.6 per cent down from 5.9 per cent in 2013.
The Maputo Declaration, 2003
In July 2003 in Maputo, Mozambique, African Heads of States met and endorsed a Declaration on Agriculture and Food Security in Africa and also adopted the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) framework.
A cardinal component of the declaration is that African countries will allocate and implement increases in spending on agriculture to at least 10 per cent of their annual budgets by 2008.
According to the declaration, such increase in budgetary allocations to agriculture was to give meaning to the CAADP with the goal to help African countries reach a higher path of economic growth through agriculture-led development, which eliminates hunger, reduces poverty, food and nutrition insecurity and enables the expansion of exports.
Proponents have said that the 10 per cent, which is one of the tenets of the Maputo Declaration, 2003, should be met from the onset and any other input based on availability of resources.
The General Secretary of the General Agricultural Workers’ Union (GAWU) of the Ghana Trades Union Congress (TUC), Mr Edward Kareweh, in an interview with the GRAPHIC BUSINESS in Accra, on their expectations of an improved agriculture sector, said unless such a far-reaching tenet was upheld to transform agriculture, it would remain largely same.
Agric budget
Mr Kareweh deduced that since the 2017 budget had already been determined, the government could come out with a supplementary budget to realign current budget to meet their developmental goal.
“What they can do is to make adequate budgetary allocation for the various areas of expenditure. For agriculture in particular, if you look at the broad budget figure, it could sometimes give wrong meaning in the sense that you have to know how much is going into real investment, capacity building and some other services which are not directly bring about increase in output,” he said.
He said the portion of the agriculture budget allocated for real investment had to be looked at critically because they are rather used for personnel emoluments, consultancy fees among others.
“If you take a chunk of the budget, then it may be broad but if you look at what actually goes to real investment within the sector, then it becomes too small and we don’t get the effect that we have wanted,” he said.
Sector growth
Official statistics show that the agricultural sector employed almost 56 per cent of the total population.
In the 2016 budget, allocation to the sector declined from GH¢395.19 million in 2015 to GH¢355.14 million, representing a decrease of about 10 per cent (GH¢40 million).
The sector contributed 22.4 per cent to GDP in 2013 but declined to 21.5 per cent in 2014. Again in 2010, the sector contributed 29.9 per cent to GDP; declined to 25.6 per cent in 2011 and further to 22.7 per cent in 2012.
However, growth in 2015 was 0.04 per cent. Also in the 2015 budget statement, the agriculture sector showed signs of recovery, growing from 2.3 per cent in 2012 to 5.2 per cent in 2013 and then to 5.3 per cent in 2014.
The growth was on account of the forestry and logging sub-sectors in which growth rebounded from a negative 0.04 per cent in 2013 to a 16.5 per cent in 2014. The Fisheries sub-sector also maintained its recent positive growth path, growing by 7.1 per cent in 2014 up from 5.8 per cent in 2013.
The crops sub-sector, however, experienced a decline, growing at 3.6 per cent down from 5.9 per cent in 2013.
The Maputo Declaration, 2003
In July 2003 in Maputo, Mozambique, African Heads of States met and endorsed a Declaration on Agriculture and Food Security in Africa and also adopted the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) framework.
A cardinal component of the declaration is that African countries will allocate and implement increases in spending on agriculture to at least 10 per cent of their annual budgets by 2008.
According to the declaration, such increase in budgetary allocations to agriculture was to give meaning to the CAADP with the goal to help African countries reach a higher path of economic growth through agriculture-led development, which eliminates hunger, reduces poverty, food and nutrition insecurity and enables the expansion of exports.
Good policies define economic performance
An economist, Dr John Gartchie Gatsi, says the incoming government must
move straight to work and not assume the lame posture that ‘everything
has been destroyed and they need time to restore them.’
He said the new government would have a relatively stable economy to build on, as the hard decisions of the past two years such as a enhanced debt and fiscal management strategies had started to yield modest results, with increased outcomes expected this year.
“The orientation of the new government is equally important. The economy is not ready for excuses, blame game as that does not allow any government to settle down to work. The new government should be ready to build on and not to assume the posture that everything is destroyed and they are starting afresh,” Dr Gatsi stressed said.
Speaking in an interview with the GRAPHIC BUSINESS, Dr Gatsi suggested that one of the first things was for the Nana Akufo-Addo led government should clearly state its intentions of whether to continue existing government projects and programmes or it would start new ones.
An important position to be known of the incoming government is about the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme with the country.
Policy formulation
He advised the new government to craft sound economic and social policies to serve as a blueprint for its administration to meet the hopes and expectations of Ghanaians.
“The policies of the new government should recognise many gains recorded in fiscal management, reforms in the energy sector and adherence to the rules on stability of contracts in the petroleum sector,” Dr Gatsi said in an interview.
Commenting on the short to medium-term prospects of the economy, Dr Gatsi, who is also a lecturer at the University of Cape Coast, said the medium-term economic outlook had already been defined in the home-grown policy framework which placed a lot of prospects in 2017 and 2018.
Already, the policy implementations have ensured some improved fiscal and debt management outcomes which were expected to be scaled up between this year and next year.
“Economic outlook of a country can only be based on concrete and comprehensive policies which we are yet to know. It can also be observed through specific policies put in place to either continue existing programmes and projects or to discontinue them,” he stated.
Promised reforms
Currently, one of the targets of the IMF programme is for the country to increase revenue mobilisation, but this flies in the face of promises by the incoming government to drastically reduce taxes.
However, Dr Gatsi believes that the IMF programme could not be overly renegotiated as some people were already calling for and that could place a limitation on the execution of many of the reforms.
One district, one factory
The economist said although it was possible for the new government to establish some selected and strategic factories, the one district one factory would not be an easy goal to attain.
“It is impossible to employ all Ghanaians willing to work as promised. But an inclusive and well-structured employment strategy to progressively employ all Ghanaians will be a welcome news,” he said.
Job creation
Dr Gatsi said the job creation agenda should include any Ghanaian with valid contracts with any state institution, as they were all serving the good course of the country.
He said termination of contracts by Ghanaians cooking under the School Feeding Programme, for instance, to be replaced by people close to the new government was not a healthy idea that should be entertained.
“Those whose contracts have ended should leave in peace and the new government should quickly learn to work with any Ghanaian, provided they have valid contracts,” he advised.
He said the new government would have a relatively stable economy to build on, as the hard decisions of the past two years such as a enhanced debt and fiscal management strategies had started to yield modest results, with increased outcomes expected this year.
“The orientation of the new government is equally important. The economy is not ready for excuses, blame game as that does not allow any government to settle down to work. The new government should be ready to build on and not to assume the posture that everything is destroyed and they are starting afresh,” Dr Gatsi stressed said.
Speaking in an interview with the GRAPHIC BUSINESS, Dr Gatsi suggested that one of the first things was for the Nana Akufo-Addo led government should clearly state its intentions of whether to continue existing government projects and programmes or it would start new ones.
An important position to be known of the incoming government is about the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme with the country.
Policy formulation
He advised the new government to craft sound economic and social policies to serve as a blueprint for its administration to meet the hopes and expectations of Ghanaians.
“The policies of the new government should recognise many gains recorded in fiscal management, reforms in the energy sector and adherence to the rules on stability of contracts in the petroleum sector,” Dr Gatsi said in an interview.
Commenting on the short to medium-term prospects of the economy, Dr Gatsi, who is also a lecturer at the University of Cape Coast, said the medium-term economic outlook had already been defined in the home-grown policy framework which placed a lot of prospects in 2017 and 2018.
Already, the policy implementations have ensured some improved fiscal and debt management outcomes which were expected to be scaled up between this year and next year.
“Economic outlook of a country can only be based on concrete and comprehensive policies which we are yet to know. It can also be observed through specific policies put in place to either continue existing programmes and projects or to discontinue them,” he stated.
Promised reforms
Currently, one of the targets of the IMF programme is for the country to increase revenue mobilisation, but this flies in the face of promises by the incoming government to drastically reduce taxes.
However, Dr Gatsi believes that the IMF programme could not be overly renegotiated as some people were already calling for and that could place a limitation on the execution of many of the reforms.
One district, one factory
The economist said although it was possible for the new government to establish some selected and strategic factories, the one district one factory would not be an easy goal to attain.
“It is impossible to employ all Ghanaians willing to work as promised. But an inclusive and well-structured employment strategy to progressively employ all Ghanaians will be a welcome news,” he said.
Job creation
Dr Gatsi said the job creation agenda should include any Ghanaian with valid contracts with any state institution, as they were all serving the good course of the country.
He said termination of contracts by Ghanaians cooking under the School Feeding Programme, for instance, to be replaced by people close to the new government was not a healthy idea that should be entertained.
“Those whose contracts have ended should leave in peace and the new government should quickly learn to work with any Ghanaian, provided they have valid contracts,” he advised.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)