Also, government should adequately resource departments of agriculture to empower them to address challenges facing the sector, including vegetable production.

This formed part of the recommendations of a research conducted into some agricultural policies implemented by governments over the years.

It was conducted by the Agency for Health and Food Security (AHEFS), the national convener for civil society organisations' sub-platform on Sustainable Development Goals (2), as part of its project dubbed: "Strengthening Agricultural Value Chain Economics for Sustainable Development (SAVES)

The year-long project, which is sponsored by the Business Sector Advocacy Challenge (BUSAC) Fund, seeks to improve the country's policy environment for the agricultural sector to be more responsive to the needs of the vegetable sector.

The research found that over the years, almost all the available agricultural policies, notably the Food and Agricultural Sector Development Policy (FASDEP), Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS), and the Medium Term Agricultural Sector Investment Plan (METASIP) appeared to ensure food nutrition security but failed to respond to the needs of the vegetable sub-sector.

It also found that the country's agricultural policies seemed to overemphasis improvement in cocoa and cereal (maize, rice) or legumes (soybean, cowpea) production whereas horticultural commodities, mainly vegetables, had been almost ignored in all the agricultural policies.

This is despite the fact that the economic benefits of the vegetable sector could not be overlooked as the sector served as source of livelihood for many actors in the agricultural value chain as well as contributed to job creation, income generation and foreign exchange, food and nutrition security.

Mr Kwaku Asante, Director of the AHEFS, who made a presentation on the research at a sensitization and pre-validation forum on its findings in Tamale, said the vegetable sub-sector had the potential to contribute substantially to the country's revenue, hence the need for policies to support its growth.

The forum, which sought to collate concerns and inputs from participants towards improving the vegetable sub-sector through policies, was attended by representatives from district-level departments of agriculture, NGOs, vegetable farmers, marketers, input dealers among others.

Mr Asante said "There should be specific projects and investment strategies to deal with vegetable value chain challenges" to improve the sector.

Mr Joseph Adjebeng-Danquah, Senior Research Scientist at the Savanna Agricultural Research Institute of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, called for efficient regulations on the use of chemical fertilizers in vegetable production as well as strengthening linkages between farmers and extension officers to promote good agriculture practices.

Mrs Hawa Musah, Tolon District Director of Agriculture, called for the strengthening of the decentralised system to ensure that it was responsive to the needs of agriculture to promote especially vegetable production.

Dr Ndonwie Peter, Director of Pan African Organization for Research, urged government to make good use of the water spilled from the Bagre Dam to irrigate vegetable farms to avoid the use of contaminated water to irrigate vegetable fields during the dry season.