Prof. Simon Cudjoe Fialor wants government to give more priority to Agriculture in Ghana
Prof. Simon Cudjoe Fialor; a lecturer at the Faculty of Agriculture of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology wants government to give more priority to agriculture than is the case currently.
The experienced Agricultural Economist who was speaking to Bernard Buachi of www.rawgist.com says successive governments have paid lip service to the sector and have been inconsistent with their policies related to the sector.
He however calls for change. He insists that budget for agriculture and agro-research is too low “considering that our lives depend on agriculture”.
He says “until we start giving sufficient muscle to agriculture budget and then demanding output in return with strong monitoring, we will remain where we are”. He says the budget for agriculture is also spread too thin across ministries. “Agriculture shares budgets with roads and highways, science and technology etc” a situation he believes does not help the sector much.
Meanwhile, the Agriculturist has also appealed to government to pay attention to other cash crops such as coconut, shea, cashew and coffee. He believes the country’s over-reliance on cocoa will not help the country as far as foreign income and the livelihoods of cocoa farmers are concerned.
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