Ghana?s Agriculture Requires Equitable Allocation Of Resources

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Holly Ransom, Josh Zwar and Tim Cameron of the Y20
Holly Ransom, Josh Zwar and Tim Cameron of the Y20

The government of Ghana needs to put in place measures to ensure equitable allocation of adequate resources such as land, water and agricultural inputs to promote food production, says coalition of youth represented at the G20 2014 Summit in Brisbane, Australia.

Holly Ransom, Josh Zwar and Tim Cameron of the Y20
Holly Ransom, Josh Zwar and Tim Cameron of the Y20

The West African country noted for its fertile agricultural lands and natural resources have toput in place policies and measures to protect small and medium scale farming from land grabbing through research on sustainable and resource efficient methods to boost food production, says Josh Zwar, Co-Chair of the Youth 20 (Y20).
Already, Ghana has abundant natural resources, such as fertile land, water as well as the manpower to position itself to level of major producer of agricultural products on commercial basis to increase farmers income to address poverty, Zwar says.

Prior to the G20 2014 summit in Australia, youth from the G20 member countries met to draw up proposals for the leaders to address bothering on youth entrepreneurship, agriculture, youth employment, energy among others. Youth from different sectors of the economy took part in the deliberations, Africa was solely represented by South Africa, the only African country, member of the G20.

The Group of Twenty (G20) is a group of major advanced and emerging economies. The G20 includes 19 countries and the European Union accounting for about 85% of global gross domestic product, in addition represent 75% of international trade as well as two-thirds of the world?s population. The United States of America, Brazil, Australia, among others make up the membership.

However, this year the Ministry of Food and Agriculture was unable able to implement a full agricultural subsidy programme-only cocoa industry was covered under the programme. This is due to the amount of money the government of Ghana owes private companies who supplies fertiliser to farmers under the programme.
In addition to that, Ghana also needs investment in infrastructure which is very important in rural areas where agriculture activity is more pronounced, Josh Zwar noted.
?Agricultural inputs play vital role in agriculture especially in rural areas therefore the need for investment in agriculture in rural areas.

?Also of significant importance is that majority of people in rural areas depend on agriculture for livelihoods thus government needs more investment in agriculture to increase economic growth and achieve food security,?? Zwar stated.
?Promoting the rediscovery of local, native and traditional varieties of plants, species and seeds as well as ensuring universal, low cost access to safeguard biodiversity and reducing transportation and storage pollution,?? he emphasised.

??Also of great importance is securing free and universal access to safe water and establishing efficient ?water management policies for food production systems,?? said Zwar.
The 2015 budget statement of Ghana read by the minister of finance and economic planning, Seth Terkper has taken off all taxes initially imposed on agricultural inputs such as machetes, cutlass, as part of the measures of the government to increase food production.

?One of the things that I?m really pleased to see in our set of recommendations is the importance of land rights for farmers, particularly. So in countries around the world where there’s insecure title to property, it disincentives farmers, obviously, to invest in the productivity of that land.
So where G20 leaders can take action to strengthen property rights, particularly for small holder farmers, I think that?s an important contribution to the wellbeing of farmers in particularly rural communities in Africa and elsewhere,?? says Zwar.

?I think the other thing we?d say is it came through really strongly in the recommendations from a number of our emerging economies and developing economy delegates, and one of the things you?ll see picked up in our recommendations is a focus on education within agriculture areas and particularly on exploring the creation of new pathways to work,?? says Holly Ransom,Co-Chairof Y20.

?You know, one of the things that was mentioned by a number of our delegates was the fact that, similar to almost every other industry inside of the economy, the agricultural sector is, too, undergoing transformation and one of the challenges we are having at the moment is very much the pathway into those opportunities in developing economies.

?So there was a focus and a callout for countries where that was a particular barrier for young people being able to find employment, that that was a focus area that their ministers chose to position on,?? Ransom says.

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