The Board and Members of the Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana (PFAG) have congratulated the President-elect, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and elected Members of Parliament.
The Association also congratulates the outgoing President, John Dramani Mahama for his magnanimity in conceding defeat.A statement issued by Abdul- Rahman Mohammed, the National President of PFAG commended the Electoral Commission and indeed, Ghanaians for conducting a peaceful election.
It said the election of the President-elect has come at a time that agriculture transformation in Ghana was at a crossroad and hence the need for a committed leader with focus on agriculture, especially small holder agriculture.
It said the local agriculture sector was experiencing a decline in growth partly due to inadequate investment in the sector, changes in weather as result of climate change and a corresponding low income for producers.It expressed the hope that the President-elect would address these challenges and bring agriculture to the next level and beyond as envisioned in his 2016 Manifesto.
The statement said Peasant farmers noted with satisfaction your visionary promise of “ONE VILLAGE ONE DAM”, especially in Northern Ghana; the establishment of agroindustry/factories in every district in Ghana based on the raw materials available in those districts.It also noted with excitement about the setting up a fertilizer factory in Western Region, provision of input subsidies and pursuance of an aggressive industrialization and value-addition to agricultural production; rehabilitation of the existing public irrigation schemes, which were all laudable and achievable.
“We recognise that you are yet to take office but your Excellency, we are constrained to remind you that the declining number of agricultural extension officers in the country is worrying as it is affecting farmers’ access to, and use of, technology in support of agricultural modernization,” it added.It said the promise to work to achieve the UN-recommended ratio of one extension officer to 500 farmers, with emphasis on recruiting female extension officers was particularly exciting news and would go a long way to increase technology dissemination and uptake.
The statement called on the yet to be constituted government to consult widely and formulate policies that would regulate the activities of nomadic herdsmen to ensure there was peaceful co-existence between crop farmers and livestock farmers specifically the “Fulani” herdsmen.
“The Association wishes to encourage you to let the NPP 2016 manifesto promises on the agricultural sector be the guide for agricultural development; for it is the bases for the massive support from farmers,” it said.