Peasant Farmers urge gov’t to invest heavily in irrigation development

Dr Charles Nyaaba, Executive Director of the Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana (PFAG), has called on the government to invest heavily in irrigation development as a risk mitigation measure.

This would encourage young people and other private investors to go into commercial agriculture.

Dr Nyaaba was speaking on the 17th International Monetary Fund bailout and considerations for the 2023 Mid-year Budget Review; the perspective of the Agricultural Sector, in Accra.

The Executive Director told the GNA that the reason for the high cost of vegetables such as tomatoes, garden eggs and pepper was over reliance on importations due to poor irrigation infrastructure and storage systems.

“When this infrastructure is put in place, farmers, who are business oriented will go into production,” he said.

Dr Nyaaba said agriculture remained the backbone of all other sectors and must be supported to lead in the economic transformation and developing Ghana beyond aid.
“We expect special treatment in the IMF programme particularly in this crisis moment where most of our economic indicators are not giving any hope.”

He said for instance the Ghana Statistical Service reported June inflation of 42.5 per cent with food price inflation leading with 54 per cent.

“Per this development, any serious nation will have declared state of emergency on food security like what the Nigerian President Bola Tinubu did,” he stated.

Dr Nyaaba said the poor performance of the agricultural sector had negative consequences on the performance of other sectors because most agro-based industries were dependent on agriculture for their raw materials.

He said the sector also helped in import substitution, provided jobs for many informal job seekers and that the poor performance of the sector had serious implication on food and national security.